Night & Day
by cgaussie01
Summary: Genderbend, co-written with threequarterfox. Part 7! Megamind daringly escapes from prison and makes his way to Scott Manor. But is he too late?
1. OMG SHOES

The Metro Mall was one of the most impressive malls in America to date. It was roughly the size of a football stadium, sorry, make that two football stadiums right next to one another. There were at least ten floors, all of them swamped with multiple stores, many of them chain stores but many simple, or original, stores. Just how many shoe stores could one multi-complex hold? That was a mystery to some. One particular individual who had set up home in Metro City knew the number, location, contact details, and what brand of shoes each individual store owned.

His name was Megamind.

And today he found himself walking the length and breadth of the many multiple floors looking for new shoes. Granted, normally the super villain would purchase his shoes online, but Minion had gone and overdrawn their Evil Credit Card, so that meant taking money from their stolen gold bricks, having it changed in the local bank into currency, and going out to buy new boots. After all, as a super villain, Megamind always had to look his best, and you never looked your best if you were showing up in tacky shoes that were partially burned or melted thanks to a certain goody-two-shoes.

Naturally he was in disguise while shopping for shoes. One didn't simply rock up at a mall, incite a riot, and send people fleeing in terror... unless that was what you were actually after. Normally, Megamind was all _for_ a good riot, but _not_ when he was shopping for shoes. Shoes took precedence over causing mass hysteria and terror. After all, how could clerks serve you if they were shaking in their boots by the sheer awesomeness that was your presence? His disguise today was pretty much a human counterpart to his usual appearance. Though, he did add some hair to the simulated projected image... but only a _little_ of course.

Skin tight black leather pants ending in spiked boots clad his lower half, while a simple AC/DC shirt covered his torso and was accompanied by a ankle length black leather jacket with a huge collar (despite it being Summer, who was he to turn his back on his love affair with the color black and leather?). The short pale man with a black goatee (and a matching head of black hair) was already carrying a few bags in one hand while the other tapped his chin. Another floor, another four or so shoe-stores in need of investigation. And now here he stood, outside the a favourite shop, peering in through the glass. They were having a sale. That was always interesting, and judging by how bold-faced and bright their signs appeared it must be an important one. Naturally the store already appeared over-run with women, and men, looking through the racks for the right shoe to fit their feet and match their wardrobe.

Sometimes, the urge to just reveal your villainy to scare off the masses was almost overwhelming. But, no... no, no matter how much he wanted to be served first, to find the shoe that fit his fairly small sized feet. Small feet were_always_ so difficult to find decently evil footwear for. Heaving a large sigh, he made his way into the store to begin the hunt again, seeking out new interesting high heeled boots to buy.

Wandering along the racks at the back of the shop, Megamind finally spied some boots tall enough to look decent. He approached them from one direction whilst someone much faster approached from the other direction, and he looked up into the face of the taller, white-clad... woman... _Oh dear..._

The two recognised each other immediately, and both stopped dead, waiting for the other to make a move. Megamind observed that his adversary was also carrying some inconvenient shopping, including a suit bag which needed to be held up at an awkward angle. He considered dropping his hard-won sale items. His adversary looked around to see either whether there were nearby citizens or somewhere to put her parcels without crushing them, he wasn't sure which.

Both were silent.

An approaching staff-member took both their attention. He looked his adversary in the eye, then looked at the staff-member, and then looked at the rack of boots. Okay. It wasn't like Metro Woman was going to buy black boots anyway, let alone have feet his size. This was not going to be a conflict over footwear.

"Hey there!" greeted the young staff-member. Her name tag read the name 'Tiffany'. She certainly looked like one, blue eyed, blond haired, and the kind of cutesy beautiful look which teenage boys would no doubt swoon over. "Can I help you, or are you still looking?" she asked, making it fairly difficult to work out if she was talking to the 'Goth' or the taller woman.

She seemed to have no idea of the tension that she had just walked in on in this less-popular corner of the shop.

Metro Woman was the first to speak. "Yes. I... was wondering if you had these in a size 10?"

Megamind, mere seconds after Metro Woman begun speaking, spoke too. "Yes! I want to know if you hold these in a size 5?"

Tiffany blinked, taken aback by how the two had answered her query at practically the same time. Looking at the taller, fairly friendlier looking woman rather the skinny, somewhat creepy-looking Goth boy, she answered. "I could have a look 'round back in the stocks..."

"Thank you"

"_Excuse me._" Megamind hissed like a desert snake, eyes narrowing at Tiffany. "Size five?"

"Yeah, I'll have a look for those too." Tiffany replied in a not-quite-as-pleasant tone to him before turning and squeezing past the other people in the store.

As Tiffany disappeared into the back room, Metro Woman and Megamind sized each other up. Metro Woman sighed. "Do we have to go through this, or can we just assume that this is your day off also?"

"It depends on just how quickly that store attendant replies and _whose_ shoes she brings back first." Megamind replied testily, green eyes narrowing all the more. He quickly glanced at the door in which the blond girl had vanished through.

Metro Woman turned, placing her boxes in the corner, then draping the suit bag over the top carefully so that it wouldn't crush. "Little Buddy, I've been shopping all day. I really would prefer we settle this nicely."

"Well I've been shopping since... last night!" he totally hadn't. Bold faced liar, he was. Megamind looked at his bags for a moment before setting them down at his feet and stood to his full height though sadly, he only came face to face with her chest and no further. Setting his hands on his hips he stuck his chin out, and looked at her.

"Shopping all night? Should I assume those bags were paid for?" Metro Woman turned her attention from the posturing little man in front of her, looking at a rack of knee high zipper boots. "Come on, Megamind, I'm not going to be wearing shoes your size anyway." She reached for a boot and admired the sole for a moment.

"Of course they're paid for! I may be a villain but there are certain rules one must obey. Especially when it comes to footwear." Megamind replied.

"I sometimes wonder if you are really in the Villain business, or just have some serious issues about Roxanne."

"Wha-" Megamind started, face flushing faintly even through his disguise simulator. "What does Roxanne have to do with any of this? Since when does talking about fashion footwear move to snarky reporters?" he asked.

"Snarky?" Metro Woman wasn't used to Megamind putting Roxanne down like that. "That's interesting." She sat down on the footstool, and tapped her foot. "Where is that girl with those boots? She either has my size or she doesn't."

"Maybe she went to skin a cow to make them." Megamind replied giving a shrug of his shoulders before putting his hands into his pockets. "Some of the help here is _not_ helpful at all." he huffed, looking around the store as if sizing it up, checking to see if it was possible to launch an attack upon it without destroying any of the surrounding stores. Mainly since the store across the way tended to carry spiked gloves that he was particularly fond of, and didn't want to loose it in the crossfire.

Metro Woman eyed the boots Megamind was wearing. "So... how does this hologram work then? Are you going to be able to take those off to try on the boots she brings back?"

He raised his eyebrows at her, before looking down at his feet, then looked back up at her. "Ah, you'd _like_ to have a clearer understanding of my genius, wouldn't you? Yes... very sneaky, Metro Woman. Trying to flatter me and learn my deep dark evilly dark secrets. Well!" he puffed is chest out before blowing on his knuckles and rubbing them on his chest. "I'm not going to tell you. So put that in your pipe and blow it!"

Metro Woman just sighed. "Well, here she comes, and she has a few boxes. I'll just watch and find out that way." She sat up and started pulling off her own canvas shoes. "Also: Justice doesn't smoke."

"Sorry about that, they were all way in the back!" Tiffany apologized as she approached the two and set the boxes down on the floor. "Now I have size ten here... I think..." she lifted the box and double checked the sticker to make sure the number was correct.

"Where there's smoke there's fire and thus evil." Megamind harshly whispered back at the woman, falling silent wen Tiffany gave him an odd look. "...what... I mean to say is, do you have... the... smoke colored... and by smoke I mean black, boots in a size five?" he asked, twiddling his fingers now against his chest.

"...yes." she replied after a moment, wondering if this guy was 'all there' or not. Lifting the box she handed it to him once handing Metro Woman hers. "If either sizes aren't good I can go check for either a larger or smaller one, but our stocks are dwindling pretty fast what with the sale and all." she explained.

"Thank you, little lady." Metro Woman took the box from Tiffany's hands, and opened it up. Beautifully wrapped white leather was to be found within, and she soon had a lap full of reams of white tissue paper as she unwrapped and unstuffed the soft white zippered knee-high boots. "Ah. This is what I wanted." Metro Woman placed the boot against her foot to see if it fitted. "Hmmm."

She was watched avidly by Megamind and Tiffany as she tried her foot in the boot, but as expected, it was far too small. "I'll go find size eleven then, madam," said Tiffany, as perkily as possible, and hurried off.

Meanwhile Megamind had all but ripped the box open and had lifted out the boots, and was examining them in the same manner that a wine drinker examined the sticker on an aged bottle. He ran his finger along the laces, eyes narrowed in deep concentration as he did so. The black was nice and shiny, rich and deep, and it sang to all good things tanned that the blue-skinned alien loved about leather. Pausing for a minute, he even _sniffed_ the shoe quickly, before turning away from Metro Woman.

"Yes, yes... a fine tanned piece of cow hide." he mumbled to himself, feeling suddenly very exposed.

"I'm sure it is." Metro Woman replied. She stood from the stool, and moved around so that Megamind could sit. "Try them on?"

Super hearing. She had super hearing. Megamind tried to act as if he knew that she would hear him, and fussed as he sat down where she had been sitting. He never usually felt so self conscious when he was the centre of attention.

"Ugh. Warm seat.' he complained, wriggling where he had sat, trying to draw attention away from the nerves he was feeling. Megamind set both boots before him on the floor, but instead of doing the logical thing and going to remove the knee high boots he was currently wearing, his hand went to his left wrist. Fiddling with a watch he was wearing, the shoes virtually vanished, revealing... the very same boots, but these were the real ones. They had scuff marks, whilst the virtual ones had had none.

Humming a tune to himself, that may or may not have been TNT by AC/DC, he unbuckled the boots and slipped them off. Though, instead of revealing blue feet, his feet matched the same tone and color of the pale skin he was wearing for the day. He then proceeded to tug the new boots on, still humming as he did.

Metro Woman, her head tilted to the side, watched as he laced the new boots on. "Don't you wear socks?"

"Since when is the state of my feet so important?" he asked dryly, lifting his gaze to give her a narrow-eyed look.

"I just..." She stopped. "I don't know, I find mine tend to chafe without socks."

"Your skin chafes?" Megamind asked, eyes widening with a child-like wonder. "Justice _chafes_?" he suddenly chuckled lowly, evilly, as he tapped his fingers together. Oh my, just what had she admitted to and just _what_ was going through his large bald head now?

Her reply was cut off by Tiffany returning. "I've found size eleven, and there's size twelve, not many people want white boots in such a large size and..." Tiffany looked at the two. "...and. I'll... just leave you two to it shall I? Okay then."

Metro Woman took the boxes from her politely, then turned back to Megamind, who had jumped off the footstool and was admiring his boots in front of a mirror.

"Do they fit?"

Megamind looked over his shoulder at her, before doing what could be considered a fairly feminine twirl, his leather jacket swishing around his slim fame as he did before setting his hands on his hips and smiled in a fairly proud, confident manner. "Like a glove." he all but purred, before his face tinted again when he remembered just who he was talking to. "Um. Yes. Yes they do."

Metro Woman sat back down on the footstool, and pulled back the lid of the box, to find an even larger pair of beautiful white leather boots. Reams of tissue paper later, she was able to zip them up over her feet and up to her knees easily. "Ah. Much better." She looked up to see Megamind watching the zipper ascend her leg with an odd look on his face. She tilted her head, looking at him.

_No, his knees did not suddenly feel fairly weak nor did his stomach do an odd little somersault. Not at all._Swallowing harshly he turned away from her, looking at his boot-clad feet in the reflection in the mirror, focusing entirely on those and _certainly_ not using it as a means of watching her behind him.

Metro Woman busied herself putting the matching boot on, zipping it up as slowly as she dared, watching him watch her. _Interesting_...

Megamind suddenly coughed, loudly, and marched himself over to the second nearest seat he could sit on. There had been, unfortunately, a little girl trying on some shoes for school when he all but shoved her off of the seat in order to sit down himself and remove his boots, put them back into their box, pay for them and get out of this store before he make a fool of himself. The little girl glared at him, before huffing and strutting off to find a new place to try shoes on.

Metro Woman stopped looking in his direction altogether, and stood in the boots. Well, they felt right. Rather tight around the ball of her foot? No? Perhaps. She tried a few paces in each direction, still blatantly ignoring Megamind, then checked how they looked in the mirror. These were leather, they'd stretch... She could see him trying to untie his laces, in the mirror, and failing. Apparently they were in a knot. _Yes. Very interesting._

Size 11 then. Chosen. Metro Woman sat down on the stool and stopped just before unzipping the boots again. _Wait. If he finds them being put ON so distracting..._ She looked over at him and found him watching her desperately. _Oh dear._

And he watched as she very slowly began to tug one of the zips down her leg. Megamind did his best to _not_ watch, really, honestly. But there was something about leather boots that just caught his attention and watching her easily flex and tug on the metal zipper had grabbed his attention by the throat and was not letting go. He let out a weak, tiny noise through his nose as she slid the boot off but finally caught control of his eyes, and his senses, before she did the same with the other boot. Giving up on the laces of his shoes he stood up suddenly, startling a patron beside him, and grabbed his shoe box. _I'll wear them out of the shop then._

Stuffing the box under one arm he returned to where he had removed his real boots and shoved them under his arm along with the box before grabbing his other shopping. He cast Metro Woman a sidelong look, tilting his head back as he did so. "So. You normally buy shoes from here?" he asked, trying to appear casual yet failing miserably. Megamind didn't _do_ casual anything.

Metro Woman smiled faintly, packing the white boots into the box. "Little buddy, there aren't that many shops which do white leather... anything." She popped the lid back over the boots, and considered what she was already carrying. Well, this was going to be awkward to carry out. Thank heavens she had super strength...

Megamind actually paused, as he had begun to make his way to the counter, when he saw his nemesis, the woman in white, looking fairly confused at the amount of boxes and bags she had to carry out. Compared to his number of bags, they were nothing. Somehow he forgot she had super strength, super speed, and all the other super abilities as he slowly made his way back to her. "Uh. If you want, I could. I could help..." but then he was struck with the memory, and realization, of who this was and he suddenly became mute.

Instead his face flushed red from embarrassment, and just stood there awkwardly.

The woman in white, however, didn't seem in the least bit upset or shocked by his offer. She tilted her head at him. "I could use a hand. You hold this, and I'll carry the rest." Metro Woman offered him the suit bag. "Just don't let it get crushed." She picked up a huge armload of designer bags, took the boots box in the other arm, and motioned off towards the counter.

A worried looking Tiffany stood at the cash register, watching her two very different customers. "So... um. How did you go?" Her perkiness seemed to have become a bit stale. The other girl at the other cash register eyed her, and she quickly put on a brave, smiling face. "Those shoes fit, Madam?"

"Yes, very well, thank you."

Behind her, Tiffany could see the shorter Goth boy staggering along behind the taller woman, actually carrying one of the many bags which she had carried in. _The two actually knew one another?_ That idea alone had her wondering the nature of the pair's... friendship, if it were, as she began to ring up the price of the boots with the 30% off that they were offering.

Megamind stood behind her, carrying now his boots, boot box, bags, plus the suit bag that he was surprisingly working his best at NOT crushing.

Metro Woman quickly paid for her purchase with cash, deposited the boots box in an already full bag on her arm, and turned to Megamind, reaching for her suit bag. "Thank you, little buddy." She took the suit bag and held it carefully away from her, watching to see him make his own purchase.

"Mffhghfm." he mumbled in reply to her thanking him, and set the box of boots down on the counter before the blond girl. "I'm wearing them out. These are my old ones before you jump to the THRILLING conclusion that I am trying to shop lift a pair of leather boots." Megamind said through his teeth as Tiffany nodded quickly, and began ringing up the price of his boots which were, obviously, the same price as Metro Woman's had.

Setting his bags down, Megamind fumbled for something in his back pocket, before producing a black leather wallet. Tugging it open he kept it close, obviously not wanting _someone_ to notice the Drivers Licence was of a blue man with a giant head, and pulled out one hundred dollar bill and placed it on the counter. The young girl took the money and quickly handed him his receipt, change, and a new bag to carry the somewhat empty shoe box in. Megamind quickly shoved his old boots into the box, before adding it to his growing collection of shopping bags.

Metro Woman paraded out of the shop, and eyed Megamind following behind her. She turned and looked up and down the shopping centre. She had frankly forgotten what else she wanted to purchase at this point.

Megamind had frankly become a huge distraction. He stopped when she stopped, and stood awkwardly, obviously wanting to keep on talking but having no idea what to say.

_Okay._ "So, what's next on your list?" she asked, keeping her voice light. "Hats?" The moment she said the word, she realised what she'd said, and stopped in horror.

They both stood there for a full beat.

He stiffened all over, and she saw the irate anger slowly flush over his face. His jaw clenched and his chin seemed to stick out slightly as his green eyes very slowly moved from where he had been staring vacantly ahead to look up at her. It was painfully obvious to her that she had just said the very worst thing you could say to a person who was born with a large cranium, but not only that but this was _Megamind._ Yet, despite the obvious insult he had taken, he was somehow keeping it together.

He took a deep, slow breath of air through his teeth, before forcing out a loud, and incredibly forced and awkward laugh. It drew attention from most of those around them, stopping what they were doing to observe the two, but mostly the Goth boy in leather.

"Funny." he added once his sarcastic, forced laughter had died. "Seeing how this is our day off I am going to... let that ..._slide._ But only today. And to answer your question, no. Not hats."

"I... um. Sorry." She felt entirely like she'd gone too far. "Well... I was going to head for..." Nothing came to mind. This had been fun, but really she should leave before someone put two and two together in their rapidly growing audience. "I was going to go to the car park." She looked around for a sign. "I've got far too much to carry as it is."

"Car park is this way." he said, still through clenched teeth, and began to make his way through the crowd. Whenever he approached a group of people, be them grown adults or young teenagers, the groups seemed to part for him as easily as the Red Sea had parted for Moses. Seems seeing an angry Goth in black leather carting a bunch of shoe bags was enough to send people separating to give him way.

Metro Woman followed behind, feeling like a big bull following this graceful figure, and they were out in the startlingly hot air of the car park in moments. She looked at the map by the doors as they passed through them, and saw that they were still two levels below roof level. To fly home, she'd need to go up the stairs.

Megamind rounded on her the moment they were out in the open of the layered car park. He looked like he was going to say something, had something planned, but he opened his mouth, stopped, paused, then said, weakly, "So where did you park your car?"

Metro Woman blinked. "My car... the roof? On the roof. Where did you park yours?"

"The basement floor." Megamind replied. Just another reminder how drastically different the two of them were. Day and night, white and black, up and down.

"Okay. Um." She didn't want to just leave, and evidently neither did he. They shuffled their feet in the empty car park, and a car drove past in the distance.

He took a slow breathe of air, then regretted it since car parks always stank of petrol and oil, and while it was a smell he was used to in the confines of his evil lair out here it smelt... different. Somehow. He wasn't in the right frame of mind to ponder the reason behind this, instead all he did was give a cough, turning his head away as he did before looking back up at the taller woman and swallowed dryly.

"Any. Anyway. I. Uh... yes." he started nervously.

At the same time she started talking. "I. If you want. I mean..." They stopped. "You go first." she said.

"Oh, no no. Ladies first." Megamind insisted, bowing his head to her slightly.

"I was wondering... if today is a day off... if you..." _Why was this so hard to ask?_ "If you might want to go out for a drink. After you take those home."

It felt as though time had suddenly decided to freeze. For a moment Megamind wondered if Minion, or a Brain Bot, had accidentally triggered his Freeze Ray... but that was impossible, the ray had been destroyed back when he was eighteen years old by the woman standing in front of him. It had been in pieces for years so no, his Freeze Ray had_not_ suddenly stopped the world on its axis at all. She had just asked him out for a drink, after he dropped his shoes back at his Evil Lair. He felt cold and hot at the same time.

Was this a trap? Was she trying to lure him into the open only to drag him off for prison for one of the many, many crimes he had committed in his years of villainy? What if she had the Warden waiting around the corner of said meeting place to drink, to cart him off instead? Then again why would she go to all that bother? It was a day off. A holiday from being bad, and being good. They weren't _really_ enemies of each other right now, were they? Or not? He felt so confused, so conflicted.

Realizing he had probably frozen up and had stared ahead for far too long he finally blinked. His eyes had been starting to dry, after all. "Yes." he heard his voice answer, though it was a small, quiet noise that could easily had been missed by anyone who didn't have super hearing.

She seemed just as shocked as he was. "Okay. Good. Fine." She seemed to have forgotten that her suit bag was now resting on the ground, dangling from her hand. "Um... Do you know the Padstow Arms?"

"I. I think so... I don't. Normally go out for drinks but I'm sure I can find it." Megamind replied weakly, gripping the strings of his bags tightly in his fists. He'll have purple marks across his fingers and palms for sure.

"I'll see you there. At... At six. No, wait, six thirty. Yes. Okay. Great. Bye." She turned, walked as gracefully as she could into the stairwell, and simply flew up the centre of the stairwell, wondering what on earth she had done.

"Do you want me to pick you up?" he called after her, raising his voice and going so far as to even stand on his toes as he called the question out... but realized he was too late. Megamind slowly sagged back to the soles of his feet. "...oh, okay. Yeah. Sure..." Megamind mumbled to himself as he stood there, awkwardly, in the car park before another driving car approached and this time almost knocked his armload of bags. "HEY WATCH IT BUDDY!" he screamed after the retreating car, before huffing and began his long trek down the same stairs Metro Woman had just exited out from.

Half way down he began to speed up, taking two steps at a time. He had... he had to hurry. Yes, he had to hurry. Six thirty. That was five hours and forty two minutes away! He hadn't any time to loose. He had to find something to wear, something classy, something suitable. Did the Invisible Car still work right? It had been rattling something awful as he had driven to the Mall today, after the last altercation with Metro Woman his poor car had taken a hiding with some pummelling fists and heat vision. How else would he get there if his car wasn't up to scratch? Maybe Minion could fix... no, no, even his faithful fish companion couldn't work wonders that quickly.

Swearing to himself, Megamind finally made it to the basement level and all but tripped over his own car. Cursing, he threw his bags into the back seat before climbing into the front and turned off his disguise generator. Sitting there in the drivers side, behind the wheel, he stared ahead blankly for a moment before turning his attention to his reflection in the rear view mirror. Okay. Keep it together, keep it calm. Be cool. Be cool. Just... drive back to the Lair. First step... get home. Then he can panic.

_Minion is going to freak._

**To be continued**


	2. Padstow Arms

"No, don't go in there! You'll find Antoni in the arms of Margarita and you'll know the baby isn't yours!" Minion yelled at the screen as he sat on the couch, darning some holes in a cape that had been damaged in he and Megamind's last altercation with Metro Woman. Seeing how it was an 'off day' his boss had gone off in search of new shoes due to his mishap with the Evil Credit Card. This meant that the fish had a day off to do his own thing, but his 'own thing' normally involved doing things to do with his boss, which was totally natural for the little guy.

He heard the rattling rumble of the Invisible Car as it pulled into the lair and made a mental note to go about fixing the engine that was obviously still suffering the affects of Metro Woman's punishment upon it. Getting up off of the couch he began riding down the elevator that had been installed in the Lair to enable easy access to the two floors that stood above the main floor. But what he found waiting for him wasn't what he expected.

True, it was Megamind, his master and best friend, but he was standing in front of his mirror, looking at himself. He was licking his fingers and sliding them across his eyebrows, then his goatee. Then he did it again, while turning to look at himself nervously. He really did look a sight.

"Sir? Are you all right?" Minion asked as he stepped out of the elevator, feeling a little worried for is boss who had never looked so nervous before.

"Minion!" Megamind gasped, as if he hadn't even heard the clanking robot body approach. "Minion you... oh Minion, the most bizarre thing ever has just happened!"

"What is it sir? Did Metro Woman leave Metro City?" the fish asked.

"What? No! I hope not!" Megamind replied, which caused the fishes eyes to widen. "I say that because... Minion..." he stood tall and put his hands to his chest, smiling in a proud manner. "I have a date."

Minion stood there for a moment. "You're kidding." he said straight up.

"No!" Megamind grinned.

"You?" Minion asked, "Have a date?"

"Yes!" replied Megamind, still grinning.

"You, Megamind, incredibly handsome criminal genius and master of all villainy have a date. You?"

"I'm getting sick of this questioning Minion. Is it so hard to believe I have a date?" he asked, narrowing a green eye.

Minion stopped himself to think fast before answering that question. "No Sir, of course not! Why, I'm surprised you've kept women at arm's length as long as you have, Sir. A handsome Casanova like you must be beating them back with a stick and to think that you've allowed one lucky lady through...! This is amazing!"

"That's better Minion." Megamind muttered more to himself before rounding on his reflection, eyes narrowing. "But now I am struck with the troublesome dilemma."

"Sir?" Minion asked.

"What am I going to WEAR!" cried the alien as he rushed from the mirror and raced his way to the elevator, waiting for Minion to join him. "I have to go through my wardrobe! Something classy, but not too classy! Leather, maybe? Or should I go with a cotton jacket? Maybe a vest. A vest is fancy, am I right? Minion are my shirts pressed and ironed? What about my pants? I can't show up in jeans, or tight leather pants! Or can I wear leather pants? This is important! I also have to, have to, oh _shoot_ it was just in my head and now it's gone!" stepping out onto the first floor where the majority of the living area rooms were located, Megamind made his way through to the room that was his wardrobe.

"Flowers! I need to get flowers! Girls like chocolates and flowers on dates, right? It's always in the movies and TV shows! Even those stupid ones!" he flipped a switch and walked into a revolving walk-in wardrobe. Clothing covering multiple hangars that were suspended on moving racks.

Minion meanwhile was having his very own little freak out session. His boss, Megamind, had a date! With a woman, a real life woman! Not like this 'Internet dates' that he had and that went fairly well until the person on the other side would ask him for a photo and when he'd give it that person would mysteriously vanish. To think, his boss on a date. Getting drinks! Complimenting the young woman on how lovely she looked, while sipping cocktails or beer! He felt like he should be documenting this whole affair with colour 3D footage. Instead he hopped from one foot to the other and back again, while his boss began going through the wardrobe.

"Sir, how about if I go and fetch some flowers for you? I know a nice little place not too far that always have good deals on flowers." he offered.

"Oh would you Minion?" Megamind asked as he held a suit in front of him as he stood before a mirror, looking to see if this shade of black and grey would suit him. "That'd be great, thanks. Make it roses! Pink ones! Red if possible! Ooh! Red on the outside and pink in the middle! Genius!" he declared, lifting his hands to the air in adulation

"Sounds lovely, Sir." Minion replied as he watched as his boss continued to pull clothing hangers off their racks to hold them in front of him, biting at his bottom lip nervously. "This is going to take a while isn't it, Sir?"

"Hm? What? Yes, yes. And see if you can do anything about the Invisible Car, if not I'll have to use some other mode of transportation." Megamind said back, having not really heard the fish since he was holding some long cape in front of him before tossing it aside. Capes wouldn't work in a bar. People would be stepping all over it and getting it all kinds of messy and he would assault _anyone_ who dared to tread on his clothing. Then Metro Woman would have to reprimand him and the date would go South far too quickly.

The fish rolled his eyes and chuckled before heading out, to retrieve some flowers from the local floral store (which was across town since their lair wasn't near anywhere populated by stores and such) but also to check on the car. If he can't give it a quick fix, who knows what kind of vehicle his boss would use to arrive at the date location.

While the two aliens were busying themselves with their two totally different tasks at hand, time itself seemed to work at two totally different means for both of them. For Minion the hours just seemed to fly past him as he busied himself with the Invisible Car, taking out parts of the engine and putting them back and testing how the engine sounded. Unfortunately whatever damage inflicted to the poor vehicle wasn't as fixable in a day as he had hoped. Meanwhile, for Megamind, time had seemingly been clapped in irons, chained to at least fifty iron balls and forced to carry ten times it's weight in steel.

He had gone through so many different combinations of things to wear, yet he wasn't happy with any of them. Nothing was good enough, nothing! And yet each time he looked at his watch on his wrist he saw only a small fraction of time had passed. Groaning to himself he decided to find just where this Padstow Arms was located. Turning on his computer he found the place was in the East district, so it wasn't too far away from his current location but too far to _walk_. Glancing over his shoulder he heard Minion exclaim an insult at the car. It was still refusing to be fixed today, much to the fish's annoyance.

"What am I going to do, think, think...!" he mused to himself as he leaned back in his high backed leather chair and put his finger tips to his temples. "The bike? No, no... that won't work..." Megamind suddenly sat up, an idea flashing itself into his mind and he turned in his seat, grinning widely as he stared at the answer to his problems. "Oohhhhh, ho ho ho ho ho...!" Megamind couldn't help but laugh to himself as he rubbed his hands together. "This is going to be _perfect!_" he declared before leaping off of his chair and hurried off to continue his preparations for the night ahead.

~*~

Meanwhile at the Scott mansion...

Metro Woman landed with her bags of shopping in the back lawn of Scott Mansion, and keyed the lock as she pulled out her phone and dialed. "Carlos? I'm in."

"Yes, good." Carlos was very understanding about her entering the grounds without using the gates. Her last guard had lasted a week before throwing his hands in the air and quitting.

She walked in to the manor, up a sweeping staircase and through a doorway, dropping her boxes on the foot of her bed. Her room was all closed up, and she wrinkled her nose as she walked over to the wide folding doors, opening the entire room to a huge balcony on the back of the building, before going and hooking her suit bag on the edge of her wardrobe door.

She stared at herself in the wardrobe mirror. "What have I done now?"

Her reflection made no answer, and she glared at her hair. It would need combing before tonight. Yes. But not right now?

Metro Woman turned on her heel, and went to open the boxes and bags on the end of her bed. Soon a row of boots, gloves, and a pretty blouse (all white) were on the white bed cover, and she glowered at the tall zip boots again. Really they were such an indulgence, she had no idea why she had bought them in the first place. All Megamind's fault. But his reaction to them had been so much _fun_...

Oh heavens above, tonight was going to be a train wreck.

She abandoned her pile of clothing to walk through the connecting door into what should have been a study on a normal house. This room was her music room, and she immediately felt more at home than she had felt in her bedroom.

Hanging on the wall were guitars of various shapes and sizes. Standing over to one side was a gleaming white grand piano next to the folding windows onto the balcony. Musical score was propped on the stand and falling on a graceful pile of score on the floor, a pile almost as high as the piano stool.

Over to one side was a battered old walnut upright piano, rarely used, which had stacked on top of it various wind instruments in their oddly shaped boxes. The opposite corner to the grand piano was taken up with a drum kit and a stand holding several electric guitars and a bass, with various cables over the floor and a few portable and less-than-portable amplifiers and other electric music paraphernalia.

Metro Woman stalked over and pulled the doors wide here too, so that the air and light could flow in.

She sighed as she walked over, flipped switches on an amp, and grabbed her current favourite guitar. It was blue, with gold sparkles through and through, and it was strong enough that she hadn't put her hand through it when she forgot herself in the music.

Half an hour later she put the guitar down in disgust. For some reason she just wasn't in the mood for music as she usually was. _Bad sign. That means tonight really will be a train wreck_.

She moodily wandered past the wide white piano, running her hand over it, and onto the wide balcony, leaning on it to look out over the view of the gardens, standing topiary and wide sweeps of grass and flowers. She had intended to spend more of today shopping, so that she wouldn't be so stressed about tonight. What would help? A bath? _Yes. That would probably solve the hair problem also._

At nearly five o'clock, she was standing by the front door, a large case in each hand. She waved one of the suitcases at Carlos in the gatehouse after locking the front door, and took off. Would do no good to be late for her gig.

~*~

The evening, for some, had started out being fairly sub-standard for the people of the Padstow Arms. Naturally due to the guest singer for the evening there was already a crowd but the very last thing that any of them expected approaching from down the street as Megamind himself. He wasn't even showing up in his car, heavens no, today it seemed to be a day out for the Spider Bot whose large feet clanked along the road, and glowing red eyes lit up the roads. It seemed pretty happy, and excited, to be going out on the town.

Megamind was in the control seat, strapped in, hands gripping the controls as he watched those around him either flee in their cars, or just hide in the nearby cafes and restaurants that took up most of the East side of town. Normally this would bring forth a wall of evil, maniacal laughter from the super villain but today he simply rolled his eyes. "Ah!" he cried, spotting a car tearing away from its parking spot. Spider Bot rushed ahead, and squeezed itself somehow into the car spot before Megamind unstrapped himself and jumped out of the Bot, landing on the ground.

He was of course wearing black clothing, he wouldn't be Megamind if he showed up in anything else. Black slacks hung on his skinny legs and his feet were clad in simple black shoes. Not boots, but shoes. They had been polished to an inch of their life, and gleamed. On his torso he wore a simple black-collared shirt that had the top few buttons open, revealing his neck and his collar bone. Around his neck hung a collar, spiked of course. Megamind just wasn't comfortable if he wasn't wearing something with spikes attached, even if Minion had disapproved of the collar.

"Let me see..." he walked up to the ticket machine and read the instructions, before slowly putting in the money requested. Waiting, he realized he had to press the button to get the ticket, which he did, and stuck the sticker to the Spider Bot's leg. "Now stay." he told the Bot, who whinged at him. "No, no. _Stay._ Daddy has business, and you can't come. Try not to chase people either. I'm trying to NOT get into trouble tonight. Okay? Stay."

Backing away from the Spider Bot, who gave him his best 'daddy don't leave me' whinge, he finally turned and looked at the Padstow Arms and narrowed an eye at it. Seemed fairly normal, though there certainly was a line up. Shrugging he lifted the collar on his black shirt up and he strode forward, naturally getting all kinds of reactions from the patrons once they actually saw who was amongst them since unlike his shopping spree this morning, he was not wearing a disguise at all.

Uncaring he made his way to the front of the line and stared up at the door man who gave him a long, confused look.

Megamind waited, before he sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yes yes, it is I, Megamind. Master of all evil and whatnot and yes I _have_ come here to partake in the revelry of your locale but I must insist that you give me space. I'm a space guy. In more ways than one. And I want service, _good_ service. Anyone looks at me the wrong way and I'll level this place faster than you can card punch out of here. You understand me? Good. Great! Now excuse me." and with that he pushed through, leaving the poor doorman looking all kinds of confused.

The Padstow Arms was packed with people, and rather hard to navigate, even if the people did get out of his way when they saw him. He could hear music playing somewhere, and a female voice singing. Every time he walked through a doorway, there were more happy, talking, drinking people, and another room. _How big IS this place?_

More important, where _was_ she? He was on time, wasn't he? Looking to his watch he checked the time and it said five forty seven and twenty one seconds. Okay, maybe he was a _little_ bit early but since when did 'good' show up to a date if not on time, than before time? As he glanced around he began to have a sneaking, worrying, and somewhat saddening idea that she wasn't even going to show up. Was he being stood up? How _dare_ she stand him up! _No, no, calm down. Deep breaths. Minion told you, girls show up late sometimes to dates. They do it all the time in the movies! It's like, a, a date test. To see if the guy is freaking out or not so do NOT freak out!_

He coughed and adjusted his collar again before walking up to the bar and, naturally, those at it moved away the second he approached. "Bar... person, type. Person behind the bar who makes the drinks, yes you!" Megamind pointed to the young man in black. "Yes. One pina colada. And give me one of those little umbrellas too." he added.

The bartender gave him an odd look. _He probably hasn't seen anyone blue before_ thought Megamind, frowning. The bartender shrugged, nodded, and made a remarkably fruity drink in a fancy glass.

Behind and to one side, Megamind could hear a round of applause as the musician finished a song. She said something he couldn't quite hear, and everyone laughed, and a man came through to the bar.

"She says she's going to loose her voice if she doesn't get another drink." The bartender grinned, and started putting together another drink.

"Got to put it to her, she plays well."

Megamind was holding his pina colada in both hands and taking a long, somewhat noisy sip through the straw the bartender had given him and raised an eyebrow at the man who was speaking to the bartender. Curious he turned his head to look at the large crowd that was surrounding what he could only guess was a stage. Due to his height, and the number of people though, it made things difficult to see.

Just who was it they were talking about, this singer?

The bartender handed over a large fancy drink, and it was carried carefully through the crowd. The singer was still talking to people, and greeted her drink with enthusiasm which had her fans laughing and talking some more.

It was only because of the drink carrying man making his way through the crowd that Megamind finally saw just who the singer was. He almost inhaled his straw, he was so shocked to see it was Metro Woman. She sang? Really? For people? In _bars_? Why hadn't he ever known this? So did this make the date not really a date more like a working break, with him just stopping in to break up the monotony of it all for her? He turned his head away for a moment, fumbling with his drink a little as nerves suddenly took over.

He had been so preoccupied with preparing for this little 'catch up' here he hadn't had time for nerves but now here they were, merrily making themselves at home in his heart and his stomach. _Is it too warm in here? No. No of course not._ Swallowing another mouthful of his fruity drink and wiped at the corners of his mouth afterwards. Should he go approach her? Or what? Damnit! Why hadn't Minion done further research into the protocols for this sort of thing?

He watched from his vantage point. She was wearing a golden yellow blouse, and cream slacks, and was balanced on a tall wooden stool, one leg up under the stool so an old acoustic guitar could hook over her thigh. She was laughing as she talked to her fans, taking a sip of the drink, then placed the cup on the stool next to her, and nodding to a young couple sharing a chair in the front row (who suddenly started cheering) she started to play her guitar and sing.

And she was good at singing. Now that he was paying attention, he realised just how good she was. The chorus came around again, and the whole audience joined in, as he watched over his drink.

"Don't it always seem to go -  
That you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone?  
They paved paradise, and put in a parking lot!"

A head moved in the audience, and he almost fell off his chair trying to continue seeing her face. She was glowing with delight as she played the guitar and her voice helped guide the crowd into a semblance of tunefulness. Giving up on his idea of hanging back he abandoned what was left of his drink on the bar and began to push his way through the crowd, unapologetic in his movements at all. But then again, being Megamind he didn't apologize to people on principle.

Finally he was only a few 'rows' of people from the crowd and he stopped himself from going any further, deciding to just stand amongst the crowd and watch her. And watch he did. He was somewhat thankful for the dim lighting. Those ahead of him never looked around, and thus had no idea who he was, so there wasn't any desire from them to get out of his way. Normally he delighted in seeing people flee before him, horrified by his presence and intimidated by his awesomeness but right now... he didn't really want that happening.

It would interrupt the song.

At the end of the song she flew into an instrumental piece. Her hands blurred in a series of very fast chords, picking out a tune faster than seemed humanly possible, and the crowd held their breath, then cheered as she came to a fancy stop at the end of the sequence. Applause and laughter, and she reached for her drink again. Megamind felt his hands moving of their own accord and clapping quietly, his applause lost amongst the cheering and applause of the crowd around him. His blue fingers, rarely on display since he was wearing fingerless gloves, slowly linked together before sliding away from one another to hang loosely by his sides.

"She's really something, isn't she?" said a man behind him. Before he had time to wonder if he was being talked to, the reply came from someone else.

"Yeah, you were right to say I should come tonight. This happen every Thursday night?"

"Yep. Starts her set at five, that's why I said you should come straight after work."

"I was late, sorry Rob. Glad I made the effort to come though."

The talk died down as the musician raised her hand, having placed her drink aside again. "Okay, I had three requests for this next one, so pipe down, Metro City!" Chatter got louder again.

She leaned over her guitar, and started playing something complex. The voices died down, and she stopped playing, looked up, smiled at her eager audience and started playing a familiar tune.

"Yesterday... All my troubles seemed so faaar away..."

Megamind would never have thought the simple opening line of a song would ignite such a reaction in the people around him. Many of them began applauding already, whistling in celebration of having one of the most popular songs (possibly) in history being sung by the woman on her battered bar stool. She opened her mouth, stared at her crowd a mocking expression on her face, and played the chorus without singing until the crowd finally shut up, then started again with a smirk.

"Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away...  
Now it looks like they are here to stay...  
Oh I believe in yesterday...  
Suddenly... I'm not half the girl I used to be..."

Having been 'told off' the crowd now stayed silent as she continued to sing the song that a Mr. McCartney had penned, and her voice was soft and low, meshing well with the guitar as she picked out the simple tune from her instrument. He found himself watching her hands more than her face, those hands that had caused so many bruises and injuries to his person and his evil devices... knowing that they were capable of making such beauty was striking for him. It made him suddenly remember, almost painfully, that all he was good at was evil and nothing else. Wishing he had another drink, he turned and pushed past the two men who had been talking behind him, and returned to the safety of the bar.

The warmth of his... _adversary. Yes._ His adversary in her crowd of mindless drones was suddenly incredibly depressing. The bartender seemed surprised to see him back at the bar so soon and raised his eyebrows, and was just opening his mouth to ask something when Megamind spoke first, his voice dry and strained. "Gin and tonic. On ice."

"Sure thing." replied the bartender as he went about making the drink, glancing across the crowd to watch the woman continue strumming away on the guitar, singing the Beatles song as if she owned it. As he returned with the drink he couldn't help but be a little conversational with the blue super villain, since it was his job to socialize. "Gotta say, I've not seen her so excited to be up on stage in a long time."

"Mhhf." Megamind replied gruffly as he took the glass, taking a long drink of it right away.

"She said it's an important night. Apparently she's expecting a friend to pick her up after her set. Six thirty, she said."

Megamind sat there, lips still to the drink, but had seemingly frozen all over. The ice inside the glass clinked against the glass, drawing him out of his awkward freeze.

"Her fans will be disappointed, usually she stays far after her set, keeps playing until the next band arrives. So if you were here for her singing... there's less than half an hour left."

He turned in his seat slowly to look over his shoulder, the song was already over and the crowd were showing their appreciation by the usual means of clapping and cheering. This brought on an unhappy memory of his old _shool_days, how the young Wendeline Scott would show off in some form or another and the mindless drones called his classmates would lap it up. How they would cheer and clap for her, and she would soak in their praise like a flower in the morning sunlight. Oh, how he wanted to be like her back then. To be popular, to be accepted and welcomed in his class rather than ostracized and forced to sit in seats away from the rest of everyone else. It was almost like time was repeating itself all over again, and he had to wonder if this was happening on purpose, like a reminder of how different they were and how things would never truly ever change for him.

Grumbling to himself about mindless drones, Megamind took another drink. He had to relax, he had to calm down, these nerves and unhappy memories were doing nothing for his state of mind or his mood.

Another song had started, one which he didn't recognise as well. He listened to it play out, and the cheering, and slumped with a growl.

This time she started singing without playing anything on the guitar at all. "Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair... In seventy seven and sixty nine... revolution was in the aiiir... But I was born too late, to a world that doesn't caaaaaree..."

Megamind kept his back to the performance, and the crowd, as the song continued to play out, her guitar eventually joining her voice. This was one he didn't know, far too peppy and happy to really end up on any of his play lists but it seemed those gathered were well aware of it since it wasn't too long until there was not only clapping along with the song but foot stomping too. It all worked into the tune flawlessly, and he took another drink of his gin and tonic as the song, and accompanied noise, continued.

Even if the crowd stopped their participation to allow Metro Woman the time to sing the last, tuneless, line of the song once she was done they erupted into cheers and waves of congratulations at a job well done. _Just like everywhere else_ he thought to himself as they cheered and clapped for the woman who could do no wrong by them at any point. Megamind sniffed at his glass and was surprised to see it was now empty, when had that happened? He couldn't remember it happening... oh well. Sitting up straighter on his seat he pulled out his wallet and paid the bartender what he owed so far before putting it back in his pocket.

He still didn't know when, or how, to approach her.

"Aaaand, I think that's my set, folks." She stood up, placing her guitar on a low table behind her, and picked up the remains of her drink. She walked straight through her admiring crowd to the bar. "Hello, handsome."

Megamind suddenly found that he had to deal with a tall beautiful goddess, full of the energy of her amassed fans, walking straight up to him. He swallowed, throat suddenly dry despite his drinking so far, and turned his head and looked upwards at her for a brief few seconds of stunned silence. "Uh." he started smartly, before blinking and shaking his head briefly before sitting up straighter rather then remain slumped over the bar the way he had been doing for the past few minutes. "Y-yeah! Hiiiii... hey, hey there." Megamind tried again, the words fumbling and tumbling from his lips.

Metro Woman laughed, and passed her glass to the bartender, who swapped it for a pre-prepared drink he had been holding ready for this. She took a sip of the drink, watching him over the glass with a cheeky expression.

He was breathing possibly a little harder than he meant to be, but he blinked rapidly as he glanced around him. Most of the people who had enjoyed the set of songs were unabashedly looking their way, no doubt taken aback by the fact that Megamind was here in the bar and he wasn't making outrageous demands or at least wearing a collar higher than his head and a cape that trailed along behind him. Megamind tapped his fingers against the bar nervously before looking up at her. "Every Thursday, huh?" he asked.

"Every Thursday. Except when someone turns the town water supply into a carbonated beverage..." She winked. "I had to tell them I had a family emergency that night."

Megamind stared at her blankly before leaning in suddenly, eyes wide. "They don't even _know_?" he asked quietly. How could nobody TELL that she was Metro Woman? Were they complete idiots?

"Not a clue. I have _no_ idea why." She looked over her shoulder at her adoring fans, then turned back to look at them. "Isn't it interesting?"

"B-but it's painfully obvious...!" Megamind stammered, gesturing to her in general though it seemed his hand tended to drift more to her chest than the rest of her. "How can they _not_...! Are they that drunk?"

"Nope, some of them don't even drink." She gestured to him "I mean... surely they noticed you? You're blue."

"Gee thanks. I hadn't noticed." he replied sourly.

"I didn't mean it like that." She tilted her head at him, smiling, then took another long sip of her drink before continuing. "I just mean that we're not sticking out that much here."

Megamind scowled at himself for being so touchy. The memories of his childhood had soured his mood infinitely and he wished it hadn't. But he nodded his head to her statement before looking into his glass, now filling with melted ice. This suddenly triggered something he had almost forgotten in the heat of his grumpy mood. He shoved his free hand into his pocket. "Oh, wait, wait..." he said, searching for something.

"Mmm?"

He suddenly pulled a glowing blue cube out of his pocket and held it out to her. His expression had changed from nervous worry to smug confidence. "This..." Megamind started before lifting his glass over the cube and allowed it to hover for a second, "Is for..." he tipped the glass and one drop of water landed on the blue cube. There was a brilliant flash of blue light and once it cleared he was no longer holding the cube but a bunch of flowers. "You." he finished as he held the flowers out to her, them being at least a dozen roses. The ones on the outer rim of the bunch were deep red, whilst those in the centre were soft pink.

"Oh!" She smiled as she took the flowers. "Clever!" She buried her face in the bunch.

"...do you like them?" he asked in a quieter voice, that look of concern flashing over his face for a brief moment.

She grinned at him, and he couldn't help but smile back. "Yes, they're lovely, Megamind. Very thoughtful. And very good presentation."

His heart swelled at that statement alone, and that smile broadened a little more and he settled his hands in his lap as he just sat there, smiling at her. "Thank you, I'm glad you appreciate the art of good presentation." Megamind replied before glancing around, then back to her. "Can we try to find somewhere not so... uhm. Close?"

She raised her eyebrow at him, then looked back at her fans and laughed. "Okay. I've got to put these instruments somewhere safe. Meet you around the side door in about five minutes?"

"Yes. Yes! Okay. Great. Good I'll see you out there." he replied as he climbed down off of his seat and gave her a small wave before backing away, turning, and vanished amongst the crowds of people. You could easily track where he was going since wherever he stepped most people got out of his way.

The same could be said for his musician friend, who managed to part the crowd quite effectively despite it being composed almost entirely out of her own adoring fans. She chatted with a few regulars as she packed a pair of guitars and a ukulele into two large suitcases, carefully finding a place for the roses, wrapping their stems in a scarf she had wet in a glass of water.

She walked out, saluting the bar man with one of her suitcases, and headed for the main entrance. By the time she had reached the entrance she had mostly lost her retinue of fans, and she walked out of the door with her face a mixture of relief and disappointment. She tried to remind herself that it was natural to feel a low after a performance.

Strangely, the thing that cheered her up was the dark-clad blue man standing outside the building.

He smiled at her and stepped back before gesturing to where he'd parked the... thing that was certainly NOT his Invisible Car. Instead of the sleek, spiked black car there was a huge, red eyed, multi-limbed Spider Bot eagerly waiting to be of use again. It looked at her, and wagged the large canon that was strapped to its back like a tail. "Your chariot awaits m'lady." he announced.

She gazed up at the Spider Bot. "Chariot."

"You remember Spider Bot, don't you?" he asked eagerly, as if their first meeting was one of joy and pleasantries and not Megamind riding the mechanical monstrosity through Metro City, turning everything and everyone into dehydrated cubes.

"Yes, I have to admit, I remember the Spider Bot." She remembered that it had stained one of her favourite super suits with an odd paint gun. She also remembered ripping several of it's legs off. Perhaps she and the Spider Bot could be considered to be even? She placed down her large suitcases, and put out a hand under it's... front. "Um... Nice doggie?"

The Spider Bot made a noise not unlike a dog whining, since now it seemed to recollect having its legs removed. But still, with the way Daddy was gesturing to it to 'be nice' it moved closer and nudged at her as gently as it could with its large bear-trap like mouth.

This was encouraging enough for her to sort of pat it on one of it's many eye stalks. _Okay_. she thought _This isn't so bad._ She looked over her shoulder at Megamind, who was doing his best to look encouraging.

"Excellent!" he squeaked as he hurried forward and the Spider Bot obediently lifted on of its legs, making a make-shift stepping ladder for his Daddy. "Come on, toss me your bags I'll put them up here!" Megamind said as he climbed up onto the Spider Bot.

"Sure." She lifted the bags, and holding one in each hand jumped easily onto the step-ladder of the leg, passing the bag up to Megamind in the cockpit of the... beast. He took a grip of one of them and the second she let go of it the sheer weight of it sent the skinny Megamind tumbling backwards into the Spider Bot's cockpit, yelping in surprise as he did. He was somewhat pinned beneath the bag, at least for a brief moment, before squeezing out from under it and lugging it as best he could until it was up right. Face a brilliant purple he went for the second case, "No worries. It's nothing. I'm fine!" he said before she could even say anything, grabbing the bag from her hand. The same thing happened again.

Face flushed violet he returned to where Metro Woman stood on the Spider Bot's leg, chest heaving, as he reached out and offered her his hand. "Up... up you... get..." he wheezed.

"Thank you, Megamind" she said, gracefully levitating the distance, with her hand on his. He suddenly noticed that her hand was touching his, and went from ordinary violet to violent violet. Even the tips of his ears changed color from their regular healthy pink to purple.

She took her seat in the back of the Bot. He was regretting the fact that the Bot only had one front seat. "R-right then!" Megamind got into the front seat but tilted his head to look over his shoulder at her, "Any desired... uh.. location?" he asked, gripping the controls in his hands.

"Somewhere with food." She wished angrily to herself that she had made a reservation somewhere. "Food would be good." She was ravenously hungry.

"Food is always good." Megamind replied, before thinking fast, he had no slow setting when it came to thinking, and smiled brightly. "I've got just the place."

Spider Bot leaped out of his parking spot, the sticker on his leg falling away as he began to merrily dash down the street, surprisingly smooth and fluid for now large, clunky and spiky he appeared. "Minion and I used to stop by this place back when we were still growing into the evil genre! They make the best food in town, bar none!" he explained to her as the Spider Bot made a right, just missed treading on a taxi, and kept going.


	3. Dinner & A Show

Megamind was well accustomed to riding through the city of Metro City in all manner of evil-themed means of transportation. Cars, bikes, roller blades, rockets, lead zeppelins, all of them more evil than the last. One of his most favourite means of transport, of course, was Spider Bot and that explained why despite it being ripped apart by Metro Woman in the past, he and Minion had spent the better half of a week putting it back together again. He had grown just too used to the big lug, so he tended to use it as often as he liked.

Though he would never have thought that one day he would be riding around in his Spider Bot with Metro Woman willingly sitting behind him in the cockpit. The cool evening breeze was on his face, the console before him lit up his image and he was manoeuvring his Spider Bot towards a hang-out he and Minion used to frequent before they became _too_ evil. Hopefully they'd still let them in and if not he could always cube the doorman or anyone else who dared get in their way.

"So what kind of food are you in the mood for? Steak? Chicken? ...Seafood?" he asked, turning his head to look back at her.

"I'll settle for anything good. I've been singing for an hour and a half, I need the energy."

"You really belted out your voice back there." Megamind said as he turned back to see where he was going, before adding quickly. "You sing really. Um. Nice."

"I uh... Thank you." She suddenly sounded embarrassed, but he couldn't turn back again, the Spider Bot was negotiating a corner. "It's not just the singing. I find what people want is the interaction. It's very draining. Not that different to my day job, really."

"You were always about presentation and gaining the crowds attention..." Megamind said, mostly to himself, despite a part of him being fully aware of just how brilliant her hearing was. He sat up a little higher in his seat and grinned. "Great, they're still here!" he grinned, showing just how long it had been since he had even stepped foot in the place.

She gazed down doubtfully at an odd little shop pressed tightly between the other buildings, the only bright and loud building in the deserted street. There weren't any signs out the front giving way any clue whatsoever that it was a place to get food, not even some tables... _or_ chairs for that matter. The bricks looked old, red and grey, that stood out against the redone roof which must have suffered some damage at some point in the past few years. That said, she could hear music, voices and cooking sounds within.

"And look, a park right outside! What luck!" Megamind grinned to himself, though from what Metro Woman could see there _were_ no parks out front. He pulled on a lever to the right of his console and Spider Bot began to lift itself into the air, and she could hear the sound of metal moving, grinding against itself. The long legs of the walking machine had lengthened, and it was soon obvious that Megamind was parking on _top_ of another car already there. Using a large screen before him to navigate so the Spider Bot wasn't standing _directly_ on the car he parked, and then wiped his hands together. "And done!" he announced.

Metro Woman gazed downward. "So... how do we get out?" Even as she said it, the Spider Bot cocked a spare leg, offering both of them a way down from the cockpit.

Megamind climbed out of his seat and onto the offered leg before turning to look back at her. Metro Woman hovered out of the cockpit, to land gracefully on the ground next to the Spider Bot while the large machine lowered its master to the floor. "Thank you." he said to the Bot and patted its leg. "Now stay. Stay. I mean it. And no emptying your oil on the car, remember? We're being _good_ tonight." he reminded the large Spider Bot, whose large canon wagged in answer.

Metro Woman smiled up at the Bot, fascinated by the interaction between master and robot. This machine seemed to be part transportation device and part dog, and the wagging of its tail was actually rather adorable. She worried for the owner of the car below it though. How would they cope with a vehicle parked above them?

The short alien turned to her and held his arm out to her, tilting his head with a suave smile. "Shall we?" he asked.

"We shall" she grinned down at him, and they paraded in to the tiny shop.

Indoors was brightly lit, all red painted walls, gleaming counter tops and the smell of good fresh food cooked quickly. Down one side of the shop was a row of tiny two seater booths and down the other, separated by a tall counter, was an open kitchen, with two men cooking things which sizzled.

While the joint wasn't exactly full of people you couldn't call it empty either. The patrons already inside turned when they saw who it was entering and many of them froze at the sight of the city's number one villain who had a loosing streak a mile or so long.

The chef, on the other hand, looked up and greeted Megamind with delight and recognition on his face. He looked behind Megamind for a moment, as if expecting someone else. His face fell.

"Megamind! My little nephew you NEVER come to the shop these days! Where is Minion? Is he okay?"

Megamind gasped in surprise, since this was the last thing he ever expected. This man was Antonio Russo, small time Mafia hit-man who had been in the prison when he had landed there on that faithful day many, many years ago. He was the reason behind why Megamind had always put a great amount of care and consideration into not only what he was wearing, but the care and maintenance of his facial hair (what little he had to work with anyway). Antonio was also the reason why Megamind had frequented this little diner in his teenage years but...

"Uncle Antonio!" he greeted, actually abandoning Metro Woman if briefly to rush forward to the counter and grinning like a little kid. "What are you still doing here, I thought you'd be out working in some fancy schmancy place by now? Is that parole officer still making you work here?"

Antonio just grinned. "Perhaps I like working here, you ever consider that?" He wiped his hand on a length of towel and leaned on the counter. "Just like Minion likes working for you. Where is Minion?"

"Minion's back at the evil Lair, doing. You know. Evil related activities. Oh!" he turned and hurried back to Metro Woman, actually grabbing at he hand before turning back to his uncle. "This is my date, Uncle Antonio. Her name's Wendeline. She's... uh, a singer!"

Metro Woman had been watching this exchange with great interest, standing back out of the way, a slow smile spreading over her face. When he tugged her forward, she allowed him to pull her, and smiled suddenly shy at this unexpected member of Megamind's family.

"A singer?" Antonio's face split in a huge grin, delightedly. "Song to tame the savage beast, yes?" He looked her in the eye. A flicker of... something. Recognition? Passed over his face... then he grinned at Megamind as if nothing had happened.

"Ho ho believe me, she is _very_ talented." Megamind grinned, glancing up at her with an honest-to-goodness tender smile on his face.

"Talented? Really? I'm sure she is." Antonio laughed, utterly cheerful, and patted Megamind on the head, in an affectation Metro Woman had never seen before. There was simply nothing like it. Usually people would be instantly cubed for even touching him!

He actually laughed, and it was like twenty or so years had melted and he wasn't some super-villain who ran around the city threatening it with destruction and mayhem, but a little kid being... well, a little kid with an uncle. Then he batted at the old man's hand, before calming down to a more adult kind of laugh and sighed. "What can I say?" he asked with a shrug, "Any way, any recommendations you can give us, Uncle Antonio?"

Metro Woman stared up at the chalked boards above the steaming kitchen. These meals weren't the sort which were painted up once and then forgotten about. Various chalked scripts, some of them copperplate and some of them lazy scrawls, noted down the meals available for the day or the week, but it was obvious that they changed with the catch or the season, and the smudges of former menus were occasionally seen sticking out from the more recent changes.

In the centre of one of the boards, names and descriptions of pizzas were written in a very neat script, over what appeared to be some sort of fish menu in a scrawl which had only been ineffectually rubbed out. The pizzas looked good. She lost track of what Megamind and Antonio were talking about, and looked down to see them arguing about something to do with anchovies.

"Ugh, how can you eat those things they're disgusting slimy little things!" Megamind said, pulling a face of great dislike at the man. "And so salty!"

"Anchovies would be good. On the dried tomato pizza?" she piped up, and earned a delighted grin from Antonio.

"See, Nephew? This girl is brilliant. Even likes my Anchovies. Even likes my pizza. She's a keeper, this one."

Megamind just held that look of dislike on his face, which had probably remained unchanged since he was a little boy in an orange jumpsuit. "I still don't like them." he said stubbornly. "Ever since you tried to force that first one down my throat when I was seven. It was gross then, it's gross now."

"I know what you like best, I'll make you your favourite." Antonio turned away, moving surprisingly quickly for someone so old and large, and immediately started on several different high speed tasks, arms flying.

The other chef there, a younger man, kept well out of his way, staring over at the pair for a moment in curiosity whenever he had the split second to spare.

"Man. I can't believe it." Megamind said as he put his free hand to his hip, having somehow forgotten his other one had remained holding onto Metro Woman's tightly. "He's still here..."

"I guess he really likes to cook?" The smell of food suddenly became overpowering, and Metro Woman walked to an empty booth and sat down, feeling a sway of tiredness. Naturally, when she began to walk, she all but yanked him after her though he put no no resistance against it whatsoever. Only when she slid into her seat did he stand there, and slowly let her hand go.

Was he supposed to sit next to her? Across from her? He didn't know. Which would be more suitable for the situation? Realizing he was standing there like a lost soul he looked at her, then the seat across from her, and back again.

The beautiful goddess patted the seat next to her.

And the blue man answered, sitting down beside her and tried his best not to focus too much on the fact he could feel her leg against his own, or her hip. Her very curvy, lovely hip. Her hip. Right there. Not. Thinking. About. It.

"So this was one of your uncles when we were in school together?" Metro Woman was gazing at the chef as he bustled about his work.

"U-huh." he replied, nodding his head quickly as his hands remained situated between his knees under the table. "Uncle Antonio was one of the main guys back home who looked after me. He had kids, you see. It made the idea of a baby in prison easier if they already knew how to deal with them back in their own homes. The fact I helped break him out for roughly three days was also a good way of becoming fond of me."

"He's one of the men you broke out of prison?" They both were keeping their voices low, not audible to anyone under the sounds of the kitchen.

"It was his daughters birthday."

"That's not an excuse!"

"Her sixteenth birthday."

"It's still not an excuse!"

"Well, he thought it was. He let them take him back in afterwards."

"He gave himself up?"

"I... Practically. Yes. Mostly."

Metro Woman decided not to push it, and sighed.

A man walked into the shop very fast, and was greeted by the chef that no one had introduced. A loud conversation erupted about tips, which ended with Antonio saying "See me later tonight, deliveries now." The man took a heavy bag out the door, and both chefs went back to their cooking.

Megamind sat carefully, quietly, chewing at his bottom lip. He looked to her, before remembering something he hadn't done. Something that you were supposed to do on a date, something important. "You look very nice." he said.

Metro Woman blinked down at him, in surprise. "You look nice too." she said, and reached out, without thinking, touching the spiked collar around his neck. "All... dressed up."

His face lit up, violet spreading across his nose and cheeks, at the simple touch and lowered his head slightly, his chin just brushing against her fingers. This seemed to enhance the blush upon his features. Mumbling an apology he gave her a faint smile. "Well, I couldn't very well show up looking anything less then presentable, am I right?"

Her smile matched his, and she left her warm hand just touching the edge of his jaw. "You're all about presentation, I'll give you that."

Megamind felt like he should do something. What that something was, however, was lost on him. But he gave her a thankful smile, wishing he had the nerves to put at least one of his hands out to... he didn't know. Touch something? What, though, he didn't know. So he just set them flat on the table.

There was a huge crash in the kitchen, and both of the chefs started yelling at each other in a language Metro Woman didn't recognise. The moment lost, Megamind and she both pulled away. She stared at her hands for a moment, and Megamind started pulling at the edges of a paper napkin.

The argument over, the chefs went on with cheerful smiles as if nothing had happened, and Metro Woman started feeling overpowered by the smell of cooking food again.

"So..." Megamind started, eyes on the paper napkin in his hands as he slowly pulled it apart. "I hear that Museum for you is almost finished..."

"Yeah" she ran her thumb over her fingers on her left hand, nervously. "There's a big opening soon." She looked up at him. "Which I am pretty sure that you were planning on gatecrashing, actually."

He gave her a low little laugh, before tilting his head back to gaze up at her. "Maybe I will, maybe I won't. Time will tell, will it not?"

"Little buddy, that almost sounds like blackmail."

"Ah!" Megamind gasped over dramatically, and put his hands to his chest. "Why I would never!" he grinned.

"Yes. You would ever." She grinned at his drama, delightedly.

"Okay, I totally would." he smirked as he gripped the edge of the table and held his shoulders back proudly.

"There, you see, that's admission enough to prove that I should have you behind bars before the opening, Megamind." She said jokingly, then realised that he thought she was serious. She grabbed his arm as he stood up.

The expression on his face had changed from smug pride to sudden fear, and some anger, so quickly and he was suddenly to his feet. Then there was the hand to his arm and he was rooted to the spot, unmoving because of this simple gesture. He didn't even bother trying to pry her hand off of him, since he knew the futility of doing that from many, many years experience. "It. It wasn't an admission. I was joking. I was joking!" he was actually _pleading_ now, chest rising and falling with panic.

"Okay. Okay okay okay, I probably deserved that reaction." She didn't let go of his arm, and had a sudden perfect memory of being left holding his cloak, once, while he bolted off into the sunset after a ridiculous adventure involving a mechanical dinosaur. "Calm down, Megamind."

"...Y... you're not... not going to drag me back home?" he asked quietly, unsure if he should feel relief yet or not.

"I... No. Home? What?" She stopped.

Megamind sat angrily down in the seat opposite her, and she let go of his arm. "Home." he said stiffly, rubbing his arm where her hand had held him. "The Prison."

"Oh. No. I was joking too." She eyed him. "Even if I do want the opening to go off without a hitch."

He nodded his head vaguely, before scratching at his neck nervously. "Hmm. Well." Now he just felt all kinds of uncomfortable that he didn't want or need. Swallowing he lowered his hand and was about to speak when the food finally made its appearance, being brought out to them by the lonely waiting staff-member.

The two piping hot pizzas were piled high with various ingredients, steaming and huge, only roughly round-shaped, and obviously hand made. Megamind inhaled with delight, and Metro Woman couldn't help but do the same. She looked up as the food was presented, and said thank you. An earthenware jug of water and two matching cups were placed on the table as they both tucked in to the pizzas. Or tried to. The first thing Megamind did was burn his fingers.

Yelping he blew on his fingers quickly before sticking them into his mouth. His pizza lay before him, tempting, waiting, and all out being delicious looking. Extra mozzarella cheese, bits of bacon, tomatoes, onions, basil, and salami stared back at him.

He looked up at Metro Woman, who had a mouthful of scaldingly hot pizza, her eyes closed, happy, while she held the rest of the piece in her hand.

Finally his fingers stopped burning so he gingerly pulled away a slice of the pizza. He blew on it firstly, before biting into it. Seconds later he realized he should have blown harder, or waited longer. That burning, boiling feeling was erupting against the top of his mouth and his eyes watered on impact.

He opened his mouth, let out a manly 'Augh!' and set his pizza slice back down and fanned at his poor tongue, and mouth, before grabbing at not his glass of water but the whole pitcher, and began to down it like someone who hadn't seen water in days.

Metro Woman had opened her eyes, and was watching his progress with interest. He glared at her over the curve of the jug. She continued to munch, eyes dancing.

Finally he set the jug down, and glared down at the pizza as if it were an enemy who needed to be dealt with. He stuck out his lower lip in a disapproving manner, and continued to do so. Despite how hungry he was, he would bide his time until the pizza least expected it and then he would attack it with all the art and skill of a large cat against small helpless prey. That'll learn it.

"It can't attack, you know. Only defend." He looked up again to see her watching him, looking far more serious.

"H-huh?" Megamind asked, caught off guard by her sudden statement.

"Like me. It doesn't attack you, it only reacts to how you are acting towards it." She reached over and almost took a piece of his pizza, saw the look on his face, and stopped. "I won't steal it. Just watch?"

Growing up in jail, Megamind had quickly learned to be very very defensive when it came to ones food. It could very easily be taken from someone bigger than you and Metro Woman was all kinds of larger than him. The urge to pull the pizza to him was squashed and he gave a slight nod, but remained quiet.

Her hand retreated, and she watched him carefully as she took a slice of her own pizza. "Okay, I'll demonstrate with this, okay?" She picked up the slice. "It's too hot to eat, right?"

"Right." he replied quietly.

"So... like this it's dangerous. If it were you, you can't even pick it up. So... you attack. And it attacks back. Weakness. But if you isolate it..." She put her pizza slice on a napkin. "And then attack it." She blew on the pizza slice. Here she had a superior advantage, and used her super breath to cool the pizza down. "Then you can defeat it." The steaming slice was now not steaming at all. She took a bite.

Megamind sat there, staring at her blankly. He had listened, of course, he was always a good student when it came to learning things, but his brain became somewhat fuzzy when her lips had puckered like that and when she'd blown out onto the pizza. From where he was sitting across from her he had felt the gust quite easily, and it sent goosebumps down his blue skin. Keeping it together though he mimicked her, grabbing a napkin and picked up the assailant (pizza slice) and blew on it. Naturally he had no super breath so he just had to blow on it a good while longer than she had.

She tilted her head to watch, then reached out and caught his wrist. Megamind froze, his eyes moving to her hand on his wrist then back up to her face. She leaned forward and blew on the slice for him, then leaned back, letting go of his wrist and resting her head on her hand to watch him eat the slice.

"...thank you." he mumbled before taking a bite of the pizza and was pleased to find it wasn't too cold, just right.

"You're welcome." She leaned in to her own pizza, reaching for another slice.

The remainder of the meal passed without incident, luckily enough. Megamind got through his pizza relatively quickly once he had figured out that not out right 'attacking' the food would get him places quicker. Either it as a fast metabolism that had him eating things quickly or things stemming from his upraising in prison made it difficult to tell, but well before Metro Woman finished up her last piece his plate was already empty. He'd gotten another jug of water since he had downed the first, and it wasn't too long until he was saying goodbye to his Uncle Antonio and promising to come 'round with Minion soon so the fish could see him too.

Stepping outside the two were surprised to find out cool the night air had gotten and just how dark it had become in such a short amount of time. Then Megamind realized they had been in there for almost two hours just eating, and talking together. Spider Bot was still there waiting patiently, and the car that had been parked beneath it had somehow maneuvered itself out from under the spider legs. Wagging its canon tail the Spider Bot welcomed them back with a happy barking sound.

Megamind glanced at his watch on his wrist before looking up at her. It was still early, and neither had a 'job job' to get ready for in the morning to worry over. "So uh. You want to stretch your legs or something?" he asked.

"Sounds like a good idea."

Megamind climbed up into the cockpit of the Spider Bot, while Metro Woman tiredly just levitated into the other seat, and they made another lightening fast jog through the much more deserted streets.

The Alan Simons Memorial Park was only a short distance away. Trees surrounding a dip in the ground which no buildings had been able to be built on, fountains and pathways. Megamind again went through the routine of making his Spider Bot sit and stay, and Metro Woman watched with delight as the vehicle behaved like a disappointed puppy, trying to follow them repeatedly.

"No, no. No. Come on I told you to behave! Daddy won't be long. Stay." he pointed to the ground and the large machine whined like a puppy before lowering itself to the ground, its red glowing eyes dimming slightly as it did. "Honestly. Like a baby." Megamind rolled his eyes before rejoining Metro Woman, putting his hands behind his back as he did. "I keep telling Minion he's spoiling it, but he never listens to me."

"So it follows Minion's orders as well as yours?"

"Well yes. We're a team, he and I, though I am a lot more important in said team than he is."

"You're the Master and he is the Minion."

"A-duh. His name's Minion, isn't it?"

"I just thought... your relationship with him... I... Oh, I don't know."

They were walking down a path under a double avenue of trees, and it was quite dark as the leaves overhead obscured the city lights overhead. Without even thinking about it, Metro Woman had started using her supervision to see where she was going. Megamind meanwhile, just had to rely on his ordinary normal vision; despite what some people hypothesized, he had no super sensitive skin, hearing, eyes, smell, taste or sight abilities at all. He was just a blue guy with a large brain, and nothing else.

"Man it gets dark real quick." he muttered.

"Yeah... This is nice. It's like being far out in the country." She was looking up at the leaves, thoughtfully.

"It _is_ nice." Megamind confirmed, a large leap for him to admit since he was normally the last man alive to compliment the city he was living in, much less the planet he was on. He decided to take another large leap as he reached out slowly and felt in the dark for her hand and linked his fingers with hers, before looking up at the outline of her face what he could see in the dim light caused by the city street lights some way across from them.

It was Metro Woman's turn to freeze in surprise. She held his fingers gently, keeping as perfectly still as she could. This was new. This was actually quite nice. This...

The crashing sound startled them both. They leapt away from each other as someone leapt out in front of them. He wasn't what you'd call a big guy, but he wasn't exactly small either. The fact he was wearing a black ski-mask and had a hunters bowie knife pointing at Metro Woman told Megamind all he really wanted to know about the guy. _Great. Way to spoil the moment._

"I have six inches of steel that say you're gonna give me your wallet, the both of ya!" he snarled in a fairly obvious out of towner accent. Megamind couldn't place it, since most Eastern folk sounded the same to him most times.

And this time, he was feeling pretty pissed off. "Oh _PLEASE._" he exasperated, "You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'll handle this." said his date beside him.

"What? No!" Megamind said, putting his hands to his hips in an annoyed manner. "Let me handle this!"

"You?" she rounded on him. "You're the _bad guy_ remember? You're the one who does this sort of thing. It's MY job."

"I do _not_ jump people in the middle of the park! Who do you think I am? I may be the bad guy but I'm also your _date_!" he shot back.

"So that means I have to act like a poor damsel in distress like your precious Roxanne Ritchi?"

"Roxanne Ritchi-what does she have to do with this?"

"She evidently is your dream date the way you _constantly_ kidnap her the way you do."

Meanwhile the mugger just stood there, looking between the two of them. This wasn't going as planned at all.

"It's all part of the majesty of it all, don't you understand that? It's got nothing to do with-sorry, I really can't do this with him standing there like this. Can't I just dehydrate him and get it over and done with?" he pointed to the guy in the ski-mask, who was fast beginning to resemble someone watching a tennis match.

"Why must you be the one to do this? Why do I have to just stand here? Oh, Megamind, rescue me rescue me from this DWEEB?"

Groaning and throwing his hands into the air Megamind takes a few steps away then put a hand to his forehead. "All right, all _right_ fine! Take a stab at my masculinity, go right ahead. I'll just stand here and PISS MYSELF with terror."

"Oh, so you're going to throw another tantrum, like you did when I knocked that stupid _rubber duck_ out of the lake?"

"He was NOT just a rubber duck!" Megamind snapped back, turning back to look at her, eyes alight with anger. "He was a highly sensitive instrument of bringing about the destruction of the city, not just some... some PLAY thing!"

"It was yellow. It quacked."

"He wasn't made of RUBBER."

"No... I will admit that it did make rather a dent in the Mayor's new car..." She was suddenly grinning.

Megamind's anger melted a little, and he gave a slight chuckle. "Hyeah. It did, didn't it? What was it, a new Porsche?"

"It matched the duck. I mean... the same yellow. I had to help him remove the duck afterwards... He seemed more horrified that he'd lost his coat in the wreckage of the car than loosing the car itself." She actually giggled, remembering the look on the mayor's face as he pulled his battered coat out of the remains of his car...

The alien hadn't witnessed that, since by that time he was well and truly being locked away back home again. Remembering something important he suddenly looked back to where the mugger had been standing and blinked to see he was gone. "Uh. Wasn't..." he glanced around, and squinted his eyes as he lifted his hand and pressed it to his eyebrows as he scanned the area. "Huh. He's gone."

She looked around. "Oh. Whoops."

"...so now what?" Megamind asked, looking back to her.

"I... oh." She looked at him. His eyes seemed to have adjusted to the dark, and huge black pupils were visible inside his green irises. Moving on impulse, she reached out and touched the collar around his neck again, then pulled gently on it. Without even thinking about it, _thoughts would make me see reason_ she leaned in to kiss him, holding him with the collar.

Naturally he had been surprised to suddenly find her hand on his collar and when she moved in he at first didn't know what to think. His mind was, for once, peacefully blank. Still, once she got too close his eyes slipped shut and a moment later he felt her lips softly press to his own. He exhaled, letting go of a breath he didn't remember holding, and kissed her in return as one hand reached up and gently gripped at the hand she had against his collar.

His lips were warm, and she couldn't help but close her hand more tightly on the collar as he kissed her back. His lips tasted of the gelato from the pizza house, lime very fresh. They tasted good. It mixed wonderfully with the strawberry gelato that she had purchased, and the longer the kiss lasted the more the flavour mixed with the warmth of his lips against her own.

Her lips tasted of strawberry. They were so soft, were they always this soft? He didn't know, he felt like he had missed out on _not_ knowing this suddenly. Megamind brought his free hand up and pushed it through her long brown hair, enjoying the feeling of the soft locks brushing against his knuckles. His hand found her face and stopped, holding her jaw.

The perfect moment passed, and Megamind tried to hold onto her as she pulled away. But it was over, a moment that he would no doubt remember second by second was gone, as was the warmth of her lips from his own. He shuddered a breath, shoulders shaking slightly, before swallowing.

He realised that she was still holding his collar, staring at him in shock, breathless.

Megamind was normally never lost for words. This was another first it seemed, to accompany just how blank his brain had been moments ago. Now, however, it felt like he had over a million thoughts flying around his head like an over populated bee-hive. He stared at her, saw the shock in her eyes, and felt as though maybe it hadn't been as wonderful for her as it had been for him. Swallowing nervously a second time he gave her a small smile as his fingers rubbed against her wrist.

Slowly she took a deep breath, and let go of the collar. He let go of her wrist. She smiled back at him, and ran her finger gently down the side of his face, before stopping again and blinking.

"I... Thank you for a lovely night off, Megamind."

Somehow he found his voice, which was difficult on account of how it had frozen and curled up somewhere at the back of his throat. "You're welcome, Wendeline..." his voice somehow squeaked out.

He was rewarded with a real smile from her. "I really should go home now." She looked up at the pathway "Where is the Spider Bot from here?"

The warmth in his chest suddenly was snuffed out, but he did his best to keep his face anything but disappointed. Of course she had to go. All good things had to end, right? Funny how that phrase never meant so much, until now. "Oh, uh... here, this... this way." he gestured behind her and the two were soon walking back through the park together.

The closer they got to Spider Bot, the louder the voice in the back of his head became. Still, he remained silent as she hovered up into the Spider Bot to easily collect her bags. She was turning to look at him when he finally spoke, maybe just a little louder than he meant to. "So when can I see you again? I mean. Not in a... you know. The usual way? Like this?" he asked.

"Another day off?" The problem with her hovering above him like this was that he couldn't see the expression on her face all that well.

Megamind swallowed loudly, and nodded his head. "Y-yeah."

"I'm playing at the Padstow Arms next Thursday...?" She turned to look at him, a flying goddess holding two bags which he knew were incredibly heavy as if they were full of helium balloons. He suddenly felt like a pathetic little mortal asking her out, and his hands found one another and his fingers fumbled against one another awkwardly.

"That... yeah that sounds good! Same time?" he asked.

She smiled at him, and he felt like a supplicant receiving a gift from the heavens as she said "Yes. Same time. I'll... I'm looking forward to it."

_So am I._ He wanted to gush but somehow kept the words in. He didn't want to appear too... well. Un-Megamind like now, did he? But he smiled at her broadly, and nodded. "I'll see you there. I'll be the blue guy with the big head in the front row."

He hoped she smiled, because he couldn't properly see her expression from here but she nodded her head to him and was soon gone, flying away into the night sky and was soon just another star in the sky above him. Spider Bot looked at his daddy with what was, somehow, a curious look before Megamind gave a faint little sigh of happiness as he pressed his fingers to his lips.


	4. Second Thoughts

Metro Woman rolled over in bed and blinked in the morning half light. Her evening slowly filtered into her mind and she rolled over, buried her face in her pillow and groaned. What was _wrong_ with her? Why had she even asked him out in the first place?

Why had that kiss been so _good_...?

She rolled over again and stared at the ceiling. A perfect image of his eyes filled her mind and she just fell into them. Green. She put her hands over her eyes and rubbed them very hard.

And that collar he had been wearing. She rolled over and buried her head under the covers. She could obsess over the collar endlessly. The idea that she could just pull him into a kiss with the collar and why had he _worn_ the damn thing? What did he _expect_?

No.

It was no use torturing herself over all this. She pulled herself out of bed angrily, wrapping herself in a robe, stepping over her scattered suitcases and clothing where she had thrown them on the floor the night before when she got home. She drifted angrily towards the bathroom. _Need a shower_ The perfect mental image of him holding her wrist while she wrapped her fingers around that collar leapt into her vision and she stumbled, denting the door frame. _COLD shower_...

The cold shower didn't help, and breakfast didn't help, and putting on a load of washing didn't help, and all sorts of household chores didn't help at all. Halfway through picking up her clothing on the floor to put in the washing machine, she remembered the roses, and madly ripped the suitcase open to find them remarkably unharmed inside the case where she had packed them so carefully. She spent some time trimming the ends and arranging them in a fancy glass vase, then found herself moving the vase from room to room so that it was always in the room she was in...

Eventually she had to dress in something sensible and go out to greet the world, and the Mayor. Friday afternoon was a school event, and she spent an afternoon signing autographs and posing for photographs whilst holding tables full of delighted, adoring children up in the air. At least it wasn't babies.

Friday night she spent alone, eating bread and peanut butter whilst thinking about pizza and gelato. Her music practice led to her playing old love songs for hours. _Oh girl, you got it bad_...

On Saturday afternoon, she found herself slowly pacing around the ceiling, upside down, picking out tunes on a battered beloved old ukelele. The tunes were old, repetitive at times, and she began to notice a trend in the themes of them. Metro Woman forced her hand to stop when she realized she was playing 'He's a rebel' on the tiny instrument for the third time in just as many minutes and groaned, before pushing a hand through her hair since it was continually falling into her eyes. "That's what I get for not tying it back..." she muttered aloud, trying to shift her thoughts from the man with blue skin to something else.

It didn't work at all so she slowly lowered herself to the ground, righting herself and placing the small ukelele upon her bed for now. Thinking maybe a good dose of television might help shift her mind from the bog it was stuck in, she grabbed her remote and switched it on. It turned out the idea didn't have merit, since the image that flickered onto the screen was a face she knew all too well. Roxanne Ritchi was, as always, headlining some local situation live and she watched, folding her legs and hovering in mid air, as the woman continued to talk. The news reel skipped along at the bottom of the screen.

Slowly she realised that Roxanne was talking about the school visit that afternoon, and groaned as she saw herself, holding aloft that table with the young kids balanced on top of it. It was so corny. Why did they always get her to do that? She laughed suddenly when she realised one of the male teachers was admiring her rear throughout the whole thing, not realising he was on camera in the background of the shot. No doubt he would be on some Internet meme by that evening, if not already.

Roxanne was saying something inane about the way Metro City was safe, and that there were positive role models everywhere. Yep, but not that teacher... The topic changed to school funding, and she regarded Roxanne carefully. Sassy, short hair, short _skirt_... that little spot right on her chin...

What she had said about the reporter last night came to mind and she frowned, remembering Megamind's response. Why _had_ she brought up Roxanne at that particular time, while they were arguing over that crook in the middle of the park? What had he meant by _majesty_? He could so easily kidnap _other_ people... well, okay, he had. He had kidnapped other young famous females. But it was Roxanne Ritchi who, from a certain time ago, had become his number one woman-to-kidnap. Why was it that way? Why did it have to be this reporter, dangling Roxanne over her, like a person taunting a cat with some kind of new toy which wasn't new at all?

Was it because she was famous? Popular? _Pretty_? What did she have that was so appealing to the villain in the first place? When Metro Woman really looked at her, she didn't have _that_ much to offer... but then she realized how shallow it was to think that kind of thing, and scowled at her train of thought.

Sighing, she pushed a hand through her hair. The news reel along the bottom of the screen went from talk about a new tax on something-or-other to gossip about the fact Megamind was still quiet, and had been for at least three days now. Seemed this was important news, since not only was he _not_ in jail right now, but he wasn't launching any attacks. If only they knew the reason why! If they knew just what had transpired the night before in the park, the way his thin hand had wrapped around her wrist, his lips to hers and-

And she could have killed him, right there and then. Echoing, disastrous, horrible memories of a boyfriend in highschool superimposed themselves on the memory of her hand around that spiked collar...

The kiss had been so good, so much what she wanted, and it had taken every ounce of her control to not allow it to go further. She couldn't. Not to Megamind. Not to anyone.

It was funny how, after years of throwing punches and eye laser blasts at the villain, only now did she suddenly realize how... well. _Frail_ he was, in comparison to herself. He wasn't shaped like other grown men his age. His body was so similar to a teenager, and only just that. It was obvious he could withstand some serious beatings to his body, and ego, as he always got away to fight another day. But if she had allowed it to go further, if she had allowed it to go where she had desperately wanted it to, and had forgotten herself like she had in highschool...

She had promised her parents that would never happen again. She had promised herself that would never happen again. She had promised... she had promised a gravestone that would never happen again.

So no.

So what was she doing, with this? Where was she going? Should she stick with the plan? No, the plan was going to end in disaster, she could just see it ending in Disaster. She'd have to make a phonecall.

She couldn't lead him on like this. She would have to tell him, let him down gently, next time they met, next Thursday. His green eyes had been so delighted when she said that she would see him next Thursday. She had never seen him looking so... so _happy_ before. Even when showing off a new evil device, talking about how he would take control of the city, or when he would reveal Roxanne Ritchi tied to something or other... he had never looked like that. His eyes certainly didn't shine in the way they had last night. Never had he honest-to-goodness smiled like that to her before.

At least, not since they were children together at that tiny school. He had repeatedly tried to destroy that school for some odd reason, but in between these attempts he had seemingly enjoyed the lessons. Such a contrary classmate... She pulled herself roughly away from the perfect image of Megamind as a child, laughing as he built remarkable mechano devices.

Growling to herself, she put herself to bed despite it being so early in the afternoon.

The next morning she phoned Minion, and got sent straight to voicemail, which was normal enough. "It's me. Call back when you have a chance."

The phone rang about half an hour later, and the voice of a cheerful fish living in a bowl on a robot gorilla body greeted her. "Good evening!"

"Evening?" She looked at the clock in confusion.

"...oh! Oh, sorry about that. I've been up all night and my clock's all out of whack right now." laughed Minion after indeed checking the clock. "He's got me working all odd hours lately."

"He has you up around the clock again? Anything I should worry about?" Last time he had Minion staying up all hours there had been a giant robot involved.

The fish hummed in a 'not telling' kind of way and she could practically hear him hopping on the balls of his robotic feet as he did. "Ah now that would be ruining the surprise! But no, I don't think it's something you have to worry about..."

"Riiight. I'll keep an ear out. I remember last time you said that, there were kittens _every_where."

"Rock 'em Sock 'em Kittens! Oh man, I remember those guys..." sighed the fish before coughing and turning on his serious voice to match a serious face. "So you called me? What's up?"

"I... Oh..." She suddenly couldn't say it. "I wondered whether... He... I think I'll have to call this plan of ours off. I shouldn't have had him come to the Arms, he really didn't like it, all those people..."

Minion blinked in surprise, turning his fish body around in order to peer behind his own shoulder. Thankfully Megamind was passed out on the couch, a black and blue guitar practically glued to his hands while wrapped in a grey army blanket and drooling faintly. "What?" he asked, sounding a little worried and confused. "He didn't say anything about that to me."

"He... didn't?" She suddenly felt, instead of relieved, horrified that he hadn't mentioned the night out to Minion in any detail. Perhaps it was all her, putting it out of perspective. Perhaps for him it had just been another night.

"There were crowds?" Minion continued, "how big? He told me about going to Uncle Antonio's and the pizza and there being music at some point but... really? Crowds? Hrm. I should have expected that..." the fish actually brushed a finger against where his chin would be if a glass dome wasn't in the way, so all she heard was the scratching of metal on glass for a moment. "Strange how he wouldn't tell me that..."

"The Arms tends to be packed on a Thursday, and he seemed a bit... unsettled there. I don't know..." He had wanted to be anywhere but there, that much was obvious. It was a good excuse.

Minion snorted through his non-existent nose. "Well of course he'd be unsettled." said the fish, certifying her fear. "Since when was he ever all right with being in such close proximity with people in the first place?" he asked._Never. He never likes being around people._

Minion walked away from his sleeping boss so not to accidentally wake him up. Megamind was incredibly grumpy if he woke up before he was ready to do so and he wasn't really in the mood to put up with a grumpy boss.

Metro Woman went on, babbling. "I'm just worried that … if he turns up at the Arms next week... he could end up with a pile of cubes in front of him, and the bartender won't like that..."

"Ehhhhh. I can see your point... but... but I think it's a good idea, you know? Getting him in there. The fact alone that there wasn't a news report on him busting up the place was like, like a field goal for me!" Not that Minion had stuck to the news channel in case any 'live' broadcasts had come on about Megamind wreaking havoc on some unsuspecting restaurant. _Of course not! Why, that would be just silly._

"Minion... I just... I don't think this is a good idea."

The alien fish frowned, and actually looked at the phone in his hand in disbelief for but a moment before putting it back to his 'ear'. "Excuse me, Miss..." he said back into the phone, "but if I didn't know any better I'd swear you were trying to back out of this. Are you?"

"Would it be a bad thing if I was?" She rested her head against the wall, looking out on the gardens of her home.

"Yes." was Minion's one worded reply.

"Oh."

Minion was quiet for a long moment before sighing, and shutting his eyes. "It's just..." he trailed into silence, and chewed his bottom lip.

"I know I contacted you first about this. I know it was my plan. I know you think it's a good plan. I thought it was a good plan too. And now I'm thinking perhaps I didn't think this through. I mean... He kissed me, Minion." _I_ kissed_him. Oh god why did I kiss him?_

She heard the fish give a startled squeak of both shock and delight mixed with maybe a little bit of horror. In the far distance she heard the barking of the Brain Bots in retaliation, and Minion's feeble attempts at shushing them and telling them that Daddy was still asleep and didn't want to wake up yet. He was fast back on the phone, eyes so wide she could practically hear them. "He _did_?" asked the fish.

"So... he didn't tell you?" She blinked.

"You know, I _knew_ something like that must have happened! Oh you should have seen him Miss, I've never seen him acting like how he was last night! I... I can't even describe it, but I knew something must have happened and to know that he kissed you oh my God, Sir's growing up so fast! Oh, oh... maybe he'll tell me later today! He went straight to bed and I couldn't get a word in edgewise anyway, oh wow. Oh wow. This is big. I think I need to sit down."

She bit back a comment on how he was a fish, and sitting down wasn't going to _change_ that. "Last night?" She frowned.

"...wait. What day is it?" the fish asked before he made a d'oh noise. "Not yesterday! Oh man. I'm more tired than I thought."

"...Evidently." She rubbed her face with her hand. "Minion, I can't let him kiss me again."

He laughed nervously before rubbing a hand against the glass dome, giving off that lovely screeching noise as he did so. "He kissed you. Wow. That's just-" then he heard her continue, and he froze. "What." Minion said.

"Minion, it was... I couldn't... I almost completely lost control of the situation. I don't know what I'm doing. I can't let this happen..." She sounded panicked, really scared. "Whoops. Um... I just put my hand through the wall, one minute..." She carefully put down a few bits of splintered wood and held her phone to her chest as she surveyed the damage and checked whether she had done something structural this time.

In that minute the fish patiently waited, mind racing. He had to resist the urge to snap at her for being scared, for the fact that she was going to do more damage to his boss' self esteem if she suddenly stopped what this was because of it, and he didn't want his boss getting hurt; not THIS kind of hurt. Bruisings and torn muscles were one thing, broken hearts was something else completely. Didn't she see how badly he cared for her? Why couldn't she see it? She had been blind to it as a little girl and she was just as if not more blind as a grown woman. _I thought she had super vision._ Groaning he shut his eyes and swam around in his bowl quickly in an attempt to stop the anger and emotions taking control. _Deep breaths, Minion. Deep breaths. Water in, water out._

"Miss, Miss are you there?" he finally said into the phone.

"Yeah, Minion, I'm here. But I'm going to need to find another carpenter." She sat down cross legged on the floor, well away from the walls. "That last one charged an arm and a leg."

"I know you're scared, Miss." Minion said quietly, calmly, breathing deeply as he spoke to keep his level of calm at a decent point. "It's expected to be scared when you're opening yourself to somebody, especially when it's... well, when it's my boss. But I don't think it's fair to him _or_ you- especially you- if you stop this now." he sighed, and continued. "What I've seen so far is good, it's positive...! He said he had plans, big ones, for you. And for once, it wasn't about some new scheme or piece of machinery meant for devastation or destruction. What's happening here, Miss, is important. It's special. It's everything, for both of you. Please don't... please don't hide yourself away from something which could be really wonderful."

She lay back on the floor and stared at the ceiling. "It will end in tears anyway, Minion. Whatever I do..."

"Can you tell the future?" asked the fish.

"Add future telling to my superpowers, then. I'll meet up with him again, we'll have a fun time, have another incredible dinner and share another incredible kiss. And I'll get too lost in the moment, and end up delivering him home with a broken arm. Or worse." _Worse. Always worse._

"Wouldn't be the first time." the fish said sourly.

"Yes but..."

"No buts, Miss!" the fish snapped quickly. "None. Not from you, of all people. Please. This means a lot to him, and you too. Yes, either of you might get hurt in it but that's what everyone has to face when this sort of thing happens! I know you're scared because how you're stronger than him in so many ways, but you shouldn't let that stop you. Don't go hiding yourself away from it."

"You have no idea how much I was hoping that you would give me a chance to back out of this, Minion."

"In this house of evil there are never chances to back out of things, Miss." replied Minion. "We never give up."

"I've noticed that." Her turn to sound sour. "I don't know what to do, Minion. I shouldn't have allowed this to happen in the first place..."

"Were you happy? At any point?" Minion asked, voice dropping down to a soft tone.

"Oh... The moment I saw him sitting at that bar, I was halfway through a song... Minion, I couldn't even remember what I was singing. Let alone the words."

Minion smiled to himself, and sighed. "So, you should-" he suddenly stopped mid-sentence. He was quiet for a few seconds before he returned. "He's waking up. I have to-"

"Minion?" she could hear the distant, somewhat muffled and obviously sleep-heavy voice of the blue man through the phone. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Go." Minion finished his sentence and the line went dead. Minion shoved the phone into his right breast plate quickly before turning around to see Megamind standing in the door wearing what he had fallen asleep in, dragging his grey army blanket and rubbing at an eye with his knuckle. He was still looking half asleep. "Ah, good morning Sir!" the fish greeted, hoping that Megamind hadn't overheard any of the phone conversation.

From the way Megamind yawned widely, it looked like he hadn't.

_Thank heavens._

Metro Woman dropped the phone on the carpet next to her and buried her face in her hands. Minion was right, she had enjoyed that night. Perhaps this could work, if she was _very very_ careful to keep her distance.

Megamind didn't seem to have been affected by the whole night all that much, he was evidently up with another plan to conquer the city, from the tone that Minion had held. Hopefully not another batch of fighting kittens, those had been really difficult to deal with. No one had wanted her to hurt anything so cute. How do you punch kittens? No one wanted something cute to be injured.

Rather like the reverse of her problem with Megamind. She allowed herself to think for a few minutes about the look on his face when she kissed him. Or even the same as the kittens. How _could_ she hurt something so cute? _With all too much ease. People are too delicate. I can't be trusted._

After that conversation, each day of the week passed interminably slowly. Breakfasts eaten too early in the morning. No attack from so much as a single kitten or brain bot. Lunch with the Mayor one day, which would have been slow and boring even on a good day. Dinners in painful solitude. She tried making her own pizzas, and burnt them when she went to see a news bulletin. They tasted of nothing.

She practiced several old love songs, and checked that her gig at the Padstow Arms wasn't cancelled. Every single day.

Every night she dreamed of green eyes.

Every morning she had a cold shower.

Thursday would never come.

~*~

"Sir, is there a reason why you're having me design fireworks?" he finally asked on Tuesday evening, peering up at his boss who was sitting cross legged on the floor of the lair while plucking at a guitar. While he had a pretty clear idea as to why, it was important for him to appear ignorant and not 'in the loop' of things.

"Hm?" Megamind lifted his head, blinking. "Oh. Uh. Yes, there is a reason. Of course there is."

"Care to tell me?" the fish asked. "As well as why you're learning that song?" he pointed a metal finger to the music sheets spread out in front of Megamind on the floor. Again, he knew why, but it was always good to ask Megamind questions so he could gloat and proudly boast of his upcoming achievements before they were even achieved. Always counting the evil chickens before they hatched.

Megamind flushed somewhat, and looked down at the music in front of him. He was silent.

"Is this for another _date_, Sir?" Minion asked, grinning toothily. Oh he had so hit the nail on the head, since Megamind went purple as a grape. "A-hah! I knew it!" he set down his work and hurried over to Megamind and crouched behind him, peering at the sheet music. "Gonna woo her, Sir?"

"Oh please!" Megamind scoffed, "As if I need to woo. She's already way past woo'ed! Didn't I mention?" he asked casually. _Way past woo'ed?_ The fish withheld the desire to roll his eyes. _If only Megamind knew what was running through Metro Woman's head._

"Mention what?" Minion said with a bemused smirk on his face. Yes, Megamind had _finally_ said he'd gotten a kiss at the end of the date on the day of the phone call but it seemed he forgot that he had informed the fish of this much every day that had passed since. So it was fun to remind him to gloat, again.

"We smooched up a storm." Megamind announced proudly, putting a hand to his chest proudly. "Couldn't keep her hands off me."

"No, Sir? However did you tear her away long enough to come home?" Minion smirked, folding his furry arms across his metallic chest.

"As they say Minion, all good things must come to an end. Which! Is why this time I'm planning on wooing her all over again with my music skills! Thank evil-Heaven for Uncle Zap back home for teaching me the guitar huh?" he asked, grinning as he strummed a chord on the guitar lazily.

"Shame about Uncle Zap." Minion commented, to which Megamind solemnly nodded. _Let's just say his nickname carried him right through to the end._ "So, you're going so perform this, and... fireworks how? Why?"

"Well duh!" Megamind replied, pointing to one of the lyric sheets with his finger. "Look, right here and here," he pointed to another line. "Fireworks would _so_ work!"

"But Sir, this song?" Minion asked.

"What's wrong with it?"

"Uh..." Minion trailed into silence as he saw the curious look of his boss, and bit nervously at his bottom lip. "Nothing Sir, nothing at all."

"I thought not." grinned the super villain as he looked back at the music. "This is going to be so awesome." he gushed. "She's going to love it."

"So seeing how I'm going to be the one setting these little love bombs of yours off, Sir, am I finally going to see who your mystery date is?" Minion asked as he walked back around his boss to return to the table of explosive ingredients. "I mean I'd like to be included on _some_ important pieces of information..."

"Oh you'll see her, Minion. And she will blow your mind."

"I prefer my mind to remain unblown, Sir."

"Well too bad! It shall be blown all over the inside of your little bowl."

"Sounds wonderful, Sir." _Oh if only you knew, Sir. If only you knew._

~*~

The Invisible Car was finally fixed. This pleased Megamind since, now, he could actually drive the damn thing and have proper room for Metro Woman's things in the back seat. This time she could properly sit beside him. This tiny piece of knowledge made his heart beat quickly as he drove towards the Padstow Arms for the second time in his life. Finding a park was easy and he pulled in, and climbed out. Putting his keys into his pocket he walked up to the door. This time the doorman easily jumped out of the way for him, knowing not to ask questions.

Today he was wearing big black boots that came up to his calves and skinny black jeans on his legs. He wore a simple short sleeved black T-shirt, and elbow length black fingerless gloves covered the rest of his exposed arms, so nobody could accidentally touch him. He hated that. There was only one person in this place he wanted touching him, and she would be on stage in at least fifteen minutes. Quickly checking to make sure his collar was on properly, he made his way to the bar. Those nearby who could see who he was in the dim light jumped back in shock, and some even went so far as to flee the business entirely.

"Lemon lime and bitters tonight." he said to the bartender, who raised his eyebrow and nodded before going about making the drink. Handing it over to the alien he smirked.

"Back again, Mr. Megamind?" he asked.

"Obviously." Megamind replied with a roll of his eyes. He sipped the drink before making his way through the crowd and stood beside one of the three seater couches which were already taken up by some giggling mindless drones of Metro Woman's. He chose the best couch, currently seating three young men. Pulling out his De-Hydration Gun he tapped it against the shoulder of one of them. "Shoo." was all he said.

The three young men, who had waited an hour to get this seat to watch the beautiful woman sing, immediately leapt to their feet and were gone. Megamind casually reholstered the gun and vaulted onto the couch. He stretched out and set his hands on his stomach as he waited. She didn't expect him this early, that much he was sure of, so he was happily awaiting the look on her face when she would appear from back stage and see him right there in the front for her.

The best seating around the stage began to fill up, and several people looked askance at the blue man lying across the best seat in the house. Things came to a head when four teenage girls dressed in a lot of lace and ribbons, short skirts and low tops, walked in, and eyed Megamind off. One whispered into her friends ear, and they all giggled, and walked up to him.

He had eyed the girls when they had made their way through the crowd. Being any average gentleman of a certain age, he had to wonder what their parents had to say about what they were wearing, whilst having a good look for himself. But then they were getting closer to him, and a purple flush began to spread over his face. They were giggling. Giggling didn't normally mean good things were about to happen. It turned out that his gut instinct was right, since next thing he knew they were making to sit on him.

"HEY HEY!" He yelped, lifting his arms and legs at the same time but remained laying down, stubborn as a mule. "Get back!"

"You can't take the whole thing, skinny!" said the most forward of the girls, and the rest giggled. "You tell him, Cat!" said another. Cat turned around and sat on the seat ahead of Megamind's legs, then leaned back on them, the look on her face very determined. Her three friends cheered, and made to do the same.

Oh how he wanted to cube all of them. It wouldn't be that bad of him, would it? He _was_ still the bad guy. He could get away with it surely! ...but then what would Metro Woman do in retaliation? Could she do anything? These mindless drones didn't even know who she _was_ so what _could_ she do, other than glare at him? No, no, that wouldn't work at all. She'd walk out on him, or something equally temper-mental like that. Maybe a good threat would make them back off? No follow through, just a threat...

One of the teenage females was now sitting on the arm of the couch near his feet. Cat was sitting on the couch at ankle level to him, leaning on his boots, arms crossed. The other two hesitated a moment, seeing the look on his face.

"You saving the seat for someone, Skinny?" asked one.

"In case you haven't noticed I happen to be the villain of this city. If I want a whole couch to myself is my business, not flappy little girls in too-short skirts!" he shot back angrily. "Now move before you mysteriously vanish and don't show up again until it rains!"

The girls all giggled. "OooooOOOOh!"

"Thinks he's really something."

Another whispered comment into a friends ear, and all four of them somehow laughed at the line, even though only one had heard it.

"Okay, skinny, move over."

"STOP CALLING ME _SKINNY!_" he screamed loudly, that control he had been fighting to keep tabs on beginning to tear at the edges.

"I'm here, I'm here, I'm sorry I'm late, I'm here..." Through the crowd came Wendeline, carrying her usual two huge suitcases. She was wearing a bleached white peasant top, the neck gathered on a gold ribbon, cut low at the front. Below that she wore a long grey skirt, slippers just showing under the ruffled hem.

Naturally the moment she walked in and approached the crowd which was gathering especially for her, they erupted into pleas of applause and cheering, even some whistling coming up from the back. Megamind, unfortunately, was a little preoccupied by being bullied by a bunch of teenagers. God, no wonder he never went to high-shool; if they all acted like this he saw it as a blessing. Still, this was making him think way too much of shool days, being forced to sit _away_ from the rest of the class because he was so different. Not to mention that awful photo they had to take.

The two girls who were still standing bounced up and down delightedly then sat in a row in front of the lounge he was on, leaning their backs against it and whispering to each other, completely forgetting about Megamind. He tried an exploratory push with his leg at Cat and her companion on the end of the couch, but they just pushed back. Sighing, he watched Wendeline open her suitcases, drag out the old stool she liked and gossip with a regular in the far corner of the stage as she pulled out a guitar.

Even with Cat and her companion taking up the space he had been going to use to display his boots, which was annoying him something fierce, he watched her, waiting. Waiting what for, he wasn't exactly sure but.. a look? He couldn't be that hard to miss, could he? She was busy after all. But he never really knew himself to 'blend' in anywhere in his life, outside that day he went to some art gallery showing some guy's 'Blue' period. All that art, all that blue, he had been almost missed by most of the regulars... at least until he began stealing the pieces. _Then_things got interesting. But here, she just didn't seem to be all too aware of him, and he'd thought he had gotten one of the better seats here.

A guitar chosen, and the tuning quickly checked, she raised her face, and looked right at him. She narrowed both eyes in a twinkling smile, then winked, then looked up over his head and around, before looking down at her instrument again. Her fingers had started to play something complex and classical without her even looking at them, and she sped it up and repeated it several times, weaving a pattern.

No. His heart did not skip a beat or three when she looked right at him. That would be silly. He smiled shakily and had almost lifted his hand to wave at her, but didn't at the last second. God, he was turning into a mindless drone, wasn't he? Was it rubbing off from the girls sitting on this chair with him? He glowered at them, enjoying the music, upset about how they had ruined his presentation.

Wendeline slowed the music, then stopped abruptly, and shook her hand for a moment, then looked up at the crowd and shrugged.

Everyone went silent, and Megamind held his breath.

"Well, it's one for the money, Two for the show... Three to get ready- now go, cat, go!..." This piece she strummed, instead of picking out the tune, and by halfway through everyone was clapping in time. Including Megamind, though he was doing it as privately as a blue man wearing leather could compared to most around him who were clapping their hands above their heads. _Blue Suede Shoes._ He tried hard to think of a reason she would sing this song other than as a reference to himself. He honestly tried.

Her fingers were amazing on the instrument, and he had to wonder just how long she had been playing guitars for. While he could clearly remember her playing a small guitar, or a ukelele, back in their shool days he had to wonder... all these years? If so it showed. She had perfected the craft, no wonder there were always so many people in here to cheer for her. He suddenly fretted, what if she could only point out the problems when he'd play his guitar for her later? This sudden wash of uncertainty had him sink back down in the couch, still watching her and unable to tear his eyes away.

By the time she had finished that song, the whole crowd of drones were eating out of her hand. She looked him right in the eye again as she finished the song, a single flaming endless instant of time, then she put her focus straight back on her audience. She grinned along with them, nodding to a regular as she started playing a song which appeared to be his request. Megamind hadn't seen how the requests were made. By telepathy? ...Could _he_request something? If so, how? If so, what would he request?

A series of old songs flowed from her, one after the other. The crowd sang along to some, and stayed quiet to others, and clapped to still more. Halfway through a piece, there was a sudden sharp report, almost like a gun going off, and she stopped. The whole audience cheered, and it took him several moments to realise that what everyone was looking at was one of the thicker strings of the guitar, snapped in the middle and curled up in a circle at either end of the instrument. Why were they cheering? This was a horrible thing to happen during mid-song, wasn't it?

She grinned at them. The woman who, it appeared, had requested the song stood up from her chair and went to the bar as Wendeline placed the guitar down and helped herself to another instrument from the suitcases. This one was a gleaming banjo, all shining chrome and bronze, and someone in the crowd laughed. "I can do it, this will be fine." she said to the doubter, and sat there tuning it. Back from the bar came the woman who had made the request, and when she saw the banjo she laughed.

"I get the booby prize, huh?" she said.

"Oh, no, I wanted to play this anyway." Wendeline replied with a wink, and took the drink from her fan. "Thanks." She took a deep sip, sitting with the banjo hanging from it's strap around her neck, then looked up at the crowd, holding her drink.

Megamind looked at the drink, then looked back to Metro Woman. Was this all part of the show for her? Why did the woman have to go get her a drink? He was beginning to feel more and more left out of the loop of important things, a feeling that he was never that quite comfortable to begin with at the best of times. Just another reminder to him on how much he had missed out on by being the outcast and embracing his destiny as the bad guy. Remembering his drink he picked it up from where he had set it on the floor then blinked, and frowned. Someone had kicked it over.

"Damn it." he mumbled to himself, and quickly got up and pushed his way through the crowd towards the bar. Behind him the same song which she had been playing on the guitar rang out on the banjo...

At the bar, he was immediately recognised. "You want to make a request? I think she's still got a few open." The barman checked a piece of paper under his bench.

"Huh?" Megamind asked smartly, staring at the man blankly.

"A request. For Miss Scott." He nodded at the musician.

He turned his head and stared at the woman for a moment before slowly turning it back to the barman. "...um. Yes. Yes, I do." Megamind replied, fingers strumming on the bench top suddenly, thinking fast. What could he request? The kinds of songs he loves were by bands like AC/DC, Alice Cooper, and other loud screaming men. Well, save for Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson! Of _course!_ Everyone loves Michael Jackson! Even if he was one of the strangest human beings Megamind had ever laid eyes on. His brain went through all of the songs he knew Michael Jackson to sing, and it was a fairly impressive library as the lyrics danced through his head milliseconds at a time. Finally he landed on one, almost like a ball landing in a roulette table, and he clapped his hands on the bar.

"Give me the pen."

The man looked surprised, but handed him a battered biro and a tiny white card. Megamind took them both and scribbled the song and artist on the white card and handed them both back to him. "Oh, and another gin and tonic please. One that's going to remain floor proof."

"Can't guarantee that... but I'll put it in a wide tumbler, hey?"

Megamind just nodded before turning around to watch the stage again.

When he went back to his seat he expected the girls to put up a fight about his choice of seating arrangements, but they just glared at him, made faces at each other and leaned forward to let him lie down again as he had before. Cat even leaned forward a little to let him in. He, at first, had no idea how to really react to this. He hadn't expected it. He _had_ expected them to totally ignore him, but this... flushing faintly he mumbled a thank you and climbed up onto the couch and lay down. The good thing about this, he was just so damn skinny they still had so much room to sit on even with him being there. At least he felt camouflaged there surrounded by fluffy lace and bleached, hairsprayed heads.

The show had moved on to a ukelele now, although he hadn't seen the transition in the confusion. He sipped his drink, watching as she played a ridiculously small instrument. It should have sounded nasty and tinny, like a smaller cheaper version of a guitar, but instead it sounded mellow and nostalgic, and her voice rose above it perfectly. Another Elvis song, of course. He had a vague idea that Elvis had indeed played the ukelele.

She stopped, and he saw that her cup was empty, she picked it up and waved it at the bar, then returned the ukelele to the case while she pulled out a second guitar.

"Dibs. Total dibs." Megamind suddenly said and he handed Cat his drink to hold and the teenager gave him the biggest 'what the hell' expression as he quickly got up off of the couch and hurried to the bar. The bartender arched his eyebrow at seeing Megamind return so quickly, but handed over the drink to the supervillain who then pushed his way back through the crowd. He moved around the stage and put one of his boot clad feet onto it to reach out to her, offering not only the glass but several white cards that the bartender had slipped into his hands along with the glass.

She finished tuning, and took the glass from him, letting her fingers touch his just for a moment. She grinned at him. "Thankyou," she whispered to him.

He returned to his seat. Cat handed back the glass with an odd look. He looked at the contents in confusion. Hadn't he had more in that when he had jumped up? Cat ignored him, watching Wendeline as she started to play another request, for someone in one of the back rows.

The songs kept coming, and she changed instruments every now and then to accommodate to the song that she was playing at that moment. Naturally the crowd adored her, clapping and applauding her, naturally there were some sing-a-long moments too that Megamind certainly did _not_ participate in _thank you very much_. But still, before he knew it, the performance was over and she was packing up her suitcases and being approached by regulars, all talking to her animatedly as he hung back on the couch. Cat and her friends had already set off to do teenage girl things, you know, the type he wasn't interested in knowing about _at all._

What had interested him, though, was when she had played the song he had requested. Good thing too, since it was her third to last song of the evening and he was sure he couldn't hide the smile he had worn throughout her whole performance. The moment where she had looked up at him, nodded as she did to other requests, and then _winked_had been one which he would treasure forever.

Right now, though, he was leaning against the red couch he had spent the past hour lounging on, and waiting for her to pick up her things. And to finish talking to that same guy she had been talking to last week. He narrowed an eye at the man, and pursed his lips together.

She eventually picked up her cases, said goodbye and walked over to Megamind, her expression again glowing with energy from the performance she had made with such an eager audience. The moment she was finally alone he made his way up to her, smiling eagerly. "Well, another Thursday, another satisfied group of mindless drones wouldn't you say?" he greeted with before boldly brushing some of her hair back to kiss her cheek.

"Better than a fleet of Brain bots." She accepted the kiss, then glared down at him. "I think, tonight, you are the pot calling the kettle... black."

He smirked at her, and wagged a finger at her. "Maybe so, but this pot is a very impressive shade of black and happens to match the kettle fairly well if I do say so myself, which, I do."

"Black is right." She tilted her head, looking at him. "I guess it looks good, on you." She hefted the suitcases in each hand. "Shall we head on out?"

"Yes, yes we shall." he replied and the two began to make their way to the door, "I managed to bring the car tonight." Megamind added, looking up at her. "Far more obedient than Spi-yder Bot. For one I don't have to worry about the invisible car stepping on someone."

"I agree that did have me worried," she admitted.

The barman watched the two walk out thoughtfully.

Once outside however, Megamind paused and glanced around. He tended to forget, now and then, that his car would become invisible by itself if left to its own devices for long enough and he _had_ been in there a while. Pulling out the keys he pressed a button and the black car spontaneously appeared to their right, beeping merrily as it did. "Ah there it is!"

"How is it that your car never seems to get hit by another car?" She asked, as he walked over and opened a door. He pointed wordlessly upward. A sign was over the spot. "No stopping".

"Handy, isn't it? Another option is having it project a fire hydrant. That works equally effectively." he replied chirpily as he made his way up to her and grabbed the one of the suitcases that she had left on the curb while she was pushing the other into the back seat. Megamind heaved and strained, and just began to lift it off of the ground when she reached back and easily plucked it from his hands. He coughed, and swung his arms before clapping them together and rubbed his hands. "So! Ready for a re-visit to the park? This time without stupid men in ski-masks trying to rob us?"

"If you had just let me deal with that..." _We wouldn't have kissed._ She was suddenly trying to work out why that could be considered a bad thing.

"Let's not think about that right now. Instead, let's focus on how great this is going to be!" Megamind enthusiastically fist pumped the air before running around her in order to open the passenger door for her. Once she had climbed in he ran around the black car and climbed into the drivers side, whose seat had been pulled forwards. Normally it was Minion who drove the car, so that meant the seat was almost always pushed far back from the drivers seat to accommodate for the bulky robot body that Minion possessed so when Megamind would get behind the wheel he would always pull the chair up close in order to reach the pedals and wheel. "You're going to love this. Just love it." he grinned, started the engine, and drove off.

_To be continued_


	5. Afternoon Delight

The car ride had been quicker than Metro Woman would have expected. Of course, the fact that Megamind wove in and out of traffic like a professional probably helped. His car was currently in 'Stealth Mode' so nobody could see them speeding past. Spotting a park in the right place, he quickly pulled in, grinning fit to burst as he turned in his seat. "Okay, this is a surprise. I need you to go out into the park. Walk till you find the green bin next to the red bench. Wait there, and I'll be with you super fast."

She looked doubtfully at him for a moment, and he motioned her to go with little movements of his hands, his face all hopeful. Sighing she stepped out of the car and leaned in the open door to say to him "My instruments will be safe in here, right?"

"Of course they will. Look," he pointed outside and there, projected right next to her, was a fire hydrant. "Nobody's going to come near here at all!"

"Okay..." She shut the door, gave the car one more doubtful look, and walked out into the dim park. It wasn't until she was just approaching the bench he had told her about that she saw a very familiar outline of somebody waiting there. The figure took a step as she got closer and walked into the street light. Minion.

Holding a remote. That was normally not a good thing.

"Well, there you are!" he greeted her, "How's it going?"

She looked over her shoulder worriedly. "Does he know you're here?"

"Of course he does. I have a part to play, tonight." grinned the fish proudly.

"I see..."

"So, how's it going? Or are you going to pull a Sir and not tell me for days?" asked the fish as he too quickly glanced in the direction where he knew his boss would be arriving from.

"Oh, Minion, he's just... he was sitting there when I arrived and there was... it was..." She couldn't work out what to say, but apparently her eyes were giving her away to the fish. His grin got wider.

"Well I'm glad it's going well. I... _really_ hope this makes you as happy as he hopes it's going to." he said as he began to suddenly back away, and gave her a thumbs up with both hands before stepping out of sight entirely.

Feeling far more nervous than she had before, she circled in place, trying to work out what was going to happen next. Things got surprisingly quiet, and still, despite them being in the middle of the bustling metropolis that was Metro City. Then, on the wind, came a tune she had some trouble placing at first. Her train of thought was somewhat derailed when Megamind walked up the same path she had travelled. In his hands was a blue acoustic guitar with a bold silver lightning bolt painted on its front. She could not remember ever seeing him play an instrument before.

Playing a tune on the guitar wasn't all he had planned for her at all. He gave her a smile which made her heart skip a beat or two before he actually began to sing for her.

"Gonna find my baby, gonna hold her tight  
Gonna grab some afternoon delight.  
My motto's always been; when it's right, it's right.  
Why wait until the middle of a cold dark night?

When everything's a little clearer in the light of day,  
And we know the night is always gonna be there any way...

Thinkin' of you's working up an appetite,  
Looking forward to a little afternoon delight.  
Rubbin' sticks together make the sparks ignite,  
And the thought of rubbin' you is gettin' so excited"

He was standing before her now, and momentarily glanced over his shoulder with a look of slight worry as he started the next line.

"Sky rockets in flight-"

What he was waiting for happened. The night sky suddenly erupted in an explosion of colors. _Fireworks?_ Is that what he had Minion staying up all night designing? Making from scratch? Surely fireworks weren't that different from the explosives that the two used every now and then in their plans but... then again they hadn't designed fireworks to make shapes in the night sky before. The blue and white fireworks out of seemingly nowhere were shaped in a lightning bolt, as well as a large M.

"Afternoon delight, afternoon delight..." Megamind half sighed, half sung, since he had been a little worried over whether or not the plan would pull off. And thankfully the fireworks had gotten off without a hitch. And so he sung his heart out to her, fingers strumming over the strings of the guitar to a song he had spent all week learning just for her.

This kind of song was so far from his usual type of song it was almost terrifying, yet, while he wasn't the greatest singer she had ever heard, she could hear just how much effort he was putting into this, how hard he was trying to impress her with something that didn't have to do with spikes or mechanical monstrosities.

Every time he reached the lyric 'Sky rockets in flight' Minion (presumably it was Minion) let another burst of fireworks light up the night sky and the two were in the bright light momentarily, before it faded back into darkness.

"Afternoon delight,  
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...  
Afternoon delight!"

Words completed, he gave one last strum of his guitar and stood there, watching her, and waiting with bated breath.

Metro Woman honestly blinked for a moment, thinking, before realising that she was the audience, and breaking into applause.

He felt a flush spread over his cheeks and ears, and let out a hoarse laugh. His nerves were on end. She liked it, didn't she? She wasn't just being polite for polite's sake, was she? Megamind shut his eyes for a moment, and breathed deeply. "Thank you. Thank you very much."

_This really meant something to him_. Metro Woman wondered for a brief instant whether he meant what the words of the song meant, also, then filed that away under a (rapidly growing) mental file on how confusing this super villain could be.

His eyes opened and he smiled at her, face still flushed. "I'm... I'm glad you liked it." he admitted quietly, fingers tapping against the strings of the guitar and shrugged, looking down at the instrument. "Not really my kind of thing but... but I thought, for you I could give it a shot."

She looked admiringly at the flushed face, her face only a slight smile of wonder, her head even shaking slightly. "You did that all for me?" Minion had been right, this meant far too much to him, and she was never going to just walk away from this situation. She'd started something she had no control over, and it scared her. She, who had enough super powers to control everything around her, seemed to have no control over this at all.

Her choices seemed to be hugely limited, and at the end of the tunnel... was... Green. Belatedly she realised that she had been gazing into his eyes for some time. Somehow they were almost touching, staring at each other. _How did that happen?_

"Of course I did it for you." he replied with a scoff, and rolled his eyes. "I don't do this for just _anyone._" Megamind said in a somewhat proud kind of way before glancing over his shoulder. Maybe he thought somebody would walk in on them like the last time they were in the park, or the fact his fire works display might have drawn the attention of the police.

He then looked back at her and then reached out, and took hold of one of her hands into his own. "I just wanted to show you how... uh. How much you've meant-I mean _mean_ to me."

The rolling of his eyes and subsequent paranoid look over his shoulder broke the spell. He took her hand and she let him hold it, but she felt cold inside, thinking dark thoughts she shouldn't be thinking in this romantic environment. His gaze back towards her, she leaned in, not meaning to, and kissed him, suddenly realising she was trying to stop him from talking. He didn't resist the kiss at all, however. Her hand folded with his, and this kiss became serious. Her other hand somehow found the back of his head, around the guitar, and his hand was resting on the small of her back. The guitar complained between them as they leaned together.

It had felt like an eternity since their last embrace like this, and he had to hold back a sound that desperately wanted to fight its way out from deep inside him. The hand holding hers released its grip on her hand to reach up and grasp blindly for her shoulder, pulling himself closer to her as much as he could with the guitar between them. His other hand just gripped more at her back, feeling those muscles he was all too familiar with beneath the peasant top that seemingly, like his guitar, felt like it was purposely there to get in the way of something.

She pulled away first, again, and Megamind tried to push down a bitter wave of disappointment. _This is just the start of the night, this time. Plenty more time for kissing._ Metro Woman gazed sheepishly down at his guitar, checking with one hand whether it was okay. The other of her hands had somehow got tangled in his collar at the back of his neck.

He too glanced down at the guitar between them, before looking back up at her. The hand on her shoulder shifted and he ran his bared fingers through her soft brown hair, feeling how smooth and silky it was against his skin before pushing it up behind her ear. Just like last time, he really had no idea what to say in this situation. He never would have thought to find himself in it not only once, but now twice. A small chuckle managed to escape his lips as he very slowly lifted the guitar strap up over his shoulder and gently rested it beside his hip. "Well." he said faintly, before looking back up at her and found himself lost in her eyes all over again.

Next thing she knew his arms were up, wrapping around her neck and shoulders and his mouth pressing against hers this time. In order to do this the blue alien had actually leapt up to grab hold of her, and his feet weren't even touching the ground at this point. He didn't seem all too concerned with this fact. Or with when his guitar fell noisily to the ground.

It was the sound of the complaining instrument which probably did it. She pulled back, in surprise, and in doing so pushed him away, and ended up holding Megamind at both arms' length whilst staring down at the poor guitar. His legs were kicking slightly, and he pulled at the fabric on her sleeves, trying to get closer to her. She stared at him, terrified. His blue hands gripped at the fabric, almost in a desperate way, before the racing of his heart finally began to fade and he realized she was... holding him away from her.

His legs stopped kicking and he stared at her, expression that of embarrassment and uncertainty. He'd over done it, hadn't he? It was fine before, why had he gone and ruined it like this? Swallowing hard he forced his hands to ease their grip on her and he looked down at his feet that continued to dangle in the air off the ground.

"...you can put me down." he mumbled quietly.

She blinked, then looked at his dangling feet. "I... um. Sorry, there." She put him down carefully, then reached down further and picked up the blue guitar. It hummed sadly.

Quickly he reached for the guitar and took it from her and hugged it to his chest, as if it was a teddy bear or some kind of protective barrier that could maybe keep back the swelling bitter taste of embarrassment he now felt. Heart burning and stomach turning to lead he swallowed, fingers tapping against the wood of the instrument.

"That was... I liked that. I liked the song. Thank you. I... Little buddy..." She faltered to a stop.

Judging by his body language that probably wasn't what he had wanted to hear. His ears were now a deep purple color, despite his face having lost much of its blue lustre. But he smiled, somewhat, and glanced up at her. He shrugged, unsure of what to say first, before sighing. "I'm glad. That you liked it. The song."

She brutally changed the subject. "So... how did you do the fireworks thing?"

"Copper halides, copper chloride at low temperature, titanium, aluminum, beryllium powder for the colours... basic ingredients for fireworks is the fuel that allows the star to burn, oxidizer which is a compound that produces oxygen to support the combustion, color-inducing chemicals, a binder to hold the pellet together and a chlorine donor that provides chlorine to strengthen the color of the flame... It's not... not that impressive..." Megamind ranted, fingers gripping the guitar to his chest still. "Designing them to explode into a pattern is a different matter all together but I-I'm sure that's not really... up your alley..." he trailed off and cleared his throat.

He was silent, as was she, for a moment before his eyes widened as he remembered something. "Oh!" Megamind cried, "Oh uh. I. Wait here. I won't be gone long." he was suddenly gone, running back the way he had come.

She watched, confusion on her face, hands on her hips. Okay. What was he going to do now? More fireworks? Minion would be in charge of those.

Seemed as though merely thinking of the fish made him appear. She heard movement in the bushes behind her, and turning her head she saw the fish looking at her with a none-too impressed expression on his face. "Nice going." he said sourly.

"Me? What? He started..." She stopped. "I started it I guess. But he was going too far."

"You said he'd kissed you before." Minion said slowly, looking in the direction his boss had vanished, then looked back to her. "Why was now different to then?"

"Because I... He..." she glared at him furiously. "What does he have planned next? Did he have that mugger planned too?"

"Mugger?" Minion asked, eyes widening. "What mugger?"

"Last Thursday. No, wait... if you don't know... and he let him get away... no." She looked up the pathway. "I didn't think I could trust myself. He scared me."

"Hold up, rewind, take a few steps back _what mugger?_" demanded the fish, before a beeping sound came from the robot's right wrist. Glancing down at the blinking little red light, which could barely be seen through the fake fur, Minion sighed in a frustrated manner and lifted it to his face and pressed it with his left finger. "Sir?"

"Minion!" Megamind's voice came out from over the speakers on... well. Somewhere. "Code: Where's the cheese? I told you to get cheese!"

"Code: Check the ice box. No wait. Code: Hold on a minute." Minion replied before covering the red dot with his hand and looked at her. "Duty calls." he said before hurrying off in the direction Megamind had gone, and soon Metro Woman was left standing alone in the middle of the park.

"Well. Fine then." She sat down on the bench and crossed her arms. "What fun." Her stomach growled in agreement.

She was left waiting at least five minutes before the return of her date, without his fish companion. Minion was probably being made to wait in the car, that, or he was lurking in the bushes again. The guitar appeared to have been left behind also, since Megamind was now carrying a basket in one hand, and a rolled up blanket under his arm. "Sorry, sorry!" he apologized as he hurried up to her. "I brought dinner." Megamind announced, smiling faintly, obviously trying to get over the previous hiccup.

She had been fiddling with a coin she had found in her pocket. She put the small metal cube which she had made into her pocket again, and sat up hopefully. "Food?"

"Food." he replied with a nod of his large head before moving past her and stepped onto the grass. "Come on!" he called, as he began to walk further into the park, away from the path that ran throughout it.

"Aren't paths put there so that people don't get lost?" She followed him. Her super nose was beginning to inform her of the contents of the basket. She could smell some cold meats in there, possibly Italian. Along with them she could pick out the scent of cheeses, some olives, and warm bread with assorted vegetables you'd normally find in baguettes. Had he also brought a salad? She could smell vinegar and other dressings wafting from within the basket as well.

"Yes they are, but we are going _off_ the beaten track. I don't want any star-crossed lovers walking along said path and interrupting us." Megamind replied with a sniff as he walked through some bushes and came out in a clearing which, seemingly, he had picked out beforehand. This was made obvious by the fact there were some Brain Bots hovering near by, giving off much needed light. They seemed to brighten upon seeing Daddy arrive, illuminating the area even more. "Ah, here we are!" he announced.

Moving forwards he placed the basket down, before quickly laying out the blue tartan blanket as the Brain Bots closest to Metro Woman eyed her with obvious curiosity.

She gazed back at them. They seemed to have been informed that this was her day off. They didn't immediately advance into a barking attack. Each was slightly different to its neighbour, in colour and decoration. They hovered at different heights, and one whipped a grasping tendril around to tap it's neighbour on the shoulder. She watched as a short battle ensued, then died down. Megamind seemed to be fussing with the blanket.

Metro Woman walked up to the Brain Bots and reached out a finger to touch one. It looked remarkably like they had real brains in their cases, and she worried yet again that this was what had happened to some of those poor fighting kittens. A brain bot advanced slightly and snapped at her finger. She hardly felt the touch of the jaws, but it yelped and bolted, leaving the clearing.

Megamind turned his head at the sound of the yelp, and watched the lone Brain Bot bolting off into the park. Blinking he turned to look at her with a 'what did you do to my little doggie' expression on his face.

"Sorry" she said, and looked at her finger. Not a scratch. She gazed after the Brain Bot. "I hope it's alright."

"Well it better be." Megamind said before standing up and spreading his arm out towards the picnic blanket. "Either way, dinner is served."

Indeed it was. The basket appeared to have been bigger on the inside since there was no way that all of the food he had laid out onto the blanket could have fitted inside. There were platters of cold meat, small bowls with the olives inside, more plates for them to eat off of, a bottle of wine and two glasses, plus numerous other dishes and delectables that may or may not have been made by Uncle Antonio given the 'Italian' feel the picnic appeared to have.

She gazed down at the generous spread with delight. "Thank you... this is... Thank you Megamind." She grinned at him, delighted, and was rewarded with a grin in return.

He shrugged in that devil-may-care way of his before sitting down on the blanket. "Well, I know how hungry performing makes you." Megamind said, "This time, nothing's going to burn my tongue though." he grinned as he grabbed a plate and began picking at some of the food he had laid out.

She sat down on the blanket, and helped herself to a plate as well. _Empty stomach, I'm just not thinking straight_...

It was inevitable, even with super speed. They _were_ reaching for things all over the spread. Their hands touched as both of them reached for the baguettes and both of them seemed for freeze for a moment. Megamind was still for only a few seconds before he picked up the long baguette that the two of them had been reaching for and quickly broke it in half and offered her half of it.

"We break our bread together" she whispered, and Megamind blinked at her in confusion. "Oh, don't worry, old fairy tale".

"...what's a fairy tale?" Megamind asked, tilting his head faintly.

"A story. You know, a kids story," she answered, buttering a piece of bread. "Didn't you have folk tales and myths from your uncles? Things that were amusing yet not true?"

"I got stories about why they were in jail. Bank robbery. Breaking and entering. Disturbing the peace. That sort of thing." Megamind replied before smiling brightly, "Are those fairy tales?" it was almost painful to hear that the young Megamind had never been told stories to about knights, or dragons and assorted things of legend. Seems his Prison uncles, despite going out of their way to raise and care for him, hadn't really been the type of men to tell bedtime stories. Then again they _were_ hardened criminals.

"Antonio _must_ have told you some Italian legends? One of my nannies told me a lot of old Scandinavian tales. She was a great storyteller. She left though." She frowned. It was a bad memory, about one of her less pleasant learning experiences. "She didn't like..."

He looked at her, before blinking slowly. "She didn't like... what?"

"I made a lot of mistakes, as a kid. And yeah, it turns out that some dressmaking materials are really flammable. I. Um." She took a bite of her buttered bread to prevent herself from having to talk further.

"I used to set fire to things a lot too." Megamind said gently, in an almost understanding manner before reaching out and patting her arm. "You were witness to some of it, remember?"

She coughed on the bread. "I was the one putting most of those fires OUT!" She laughed.

"Well they were honest mistakes, way back then! Only after the paint bomb incident were any and all fires made on purpose." he smirked at her as he tore open his bread and began to add cold meats and cheeses to it for more flavour.

"Mmmm." She chewed on the bread, before going ahead and filling her own sandwich. "So I have always wondered something?" She munched on some olives.

He looked to her, arching an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"Oh, you don't have to answer. But... do you remember, one of the first times you made an escape, you disappeared for over a month. I always wanted to know where you went?"

Megamind pursed his lips together as he thought back. "Hm... I was fourteen, right? Yes, yes that was the time..." he trailed off into silence and bit at his bottom lip. Seemed he remembered.

"We were both fourteen. Everyone went nuts trying to find you. They even accused me of hiding you." This sandwich needed more... she scanned the spread... cheese? She helped herself to some.

"Pfttthah! You?" he asked, snorting in amusement. "They thought _you_ were hiding me? Why would they assume such a thing?"

"I have no idea. They were grasping at straws. And you remember I wasn't allowed to fight you any more, because it would only encourage you?" She giggled. "So of course it had to be my fault." She munched sandwich.

The blue alien chuckled to himself as he scooted across the picnic rug to pick up some olives, and popped one into his mouth. "I swear, adults... I mean. When were were young, anyway. Thought they knew everything."

"Speaking of adults." She nodded to the wine. "We going to open that?"

"But of course, but once our plates are full." Megamind replied as he grabbed a few more yummy delights to add to his plate and sat, cross legged, on the rug. "So you want to know where I went?"

"Sure. It's too long ago now, no one will care, right?" She had a fully loaded plate in front of her, and a sandwich in her hands as well now, and was working her way through both.

He nodded his head, setting his plate in his lap as he reached over to grab the bottle of wine as well as the two glasses. Setting one in front of her and the other in front of him he began unwrapping the cork on the bottle. "Simple. I went into outer space." he replied, crumpling up the material and setting it into the basket as he began working at the cork with a corkscrew.

"You... wow. How? What?" She stopped eating, sandwich held up. "You just... went? But..." She put the sandwich down and stared at him.

"Well," he said as pulled, "simple. Ever since I was a little kid I wanted to go into outer space, like... going back home, but not really. So most of my exploits previous to my one month vanishing was spent making myself a make-shift means of getting up into outer space. The vehicle was no bigger than a Volkswagen beetle, to be totally honest." Megamind shut one eye as the bottle of wine popped open. "Remember that gas station explosion, it would have happened early on before my 'vanishing'? That was me taking off. I only used the explosion of the empty gas station to hide my take off."

He poured the red wine into her glass first, and then his own.

"But you were seen at least twice after that."

"Oh was I?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It... wasn't you." She picked up her sandwich again and had another thoughtful bite. "Very clever." She ate thoughtfully, easily finishing the sandwich.

"...thank you." Megamind smiled softly. He picked up his glass of wine, and sniffed at it gently. "No, it wasn't me they saw. So I spent a whole month immersed in a capsule that was, at the time, unmanned. By the time they send somebody up to fix the 'broken' surveillance cameras a month had passed, and I was well on my way back to Metrocity again."

"Wow. And I thought my vacations to the snowfields were really something at that age."

Megamind took a sip of his wine before looking upwards. Of course, being in a big bright city meant star gazing was fairly impossible to do while sitting in the park. There were a few stars that managed to fight their way through the brightness, and pollution, of the city to be seen but it was a meagre offering. "Next time you can, I recommend just going up there as high as you can to just see everything. Seeing the planet hanging above me, suspended... it really was beautiful."

She gazed upward. "It must have been." She looked back down at her wine glass in front of her, then picked it up. "Thank you for telling me, I'd always wondered. My father went so far as to ground me when I wouldn't tell him where you were." She held the glass out, and clinked it against his where he was holding it.

"Oh...! Uh. Well. Sorry for a grounding you didn't deserve, but my evil self is indeed cackling at this little bit of information, just so you know." he winked at her, grinning still, and sipped his wine again before setting it down and grabbing his sandwich in both hands.

"I still often get into trouble for things you cause, you know." She sipped wine and eyed a bowl holding the last of the tomatoes.

"For not stopping me first?" he asked, blinking in surprise.

She helped herself to tomatoes, cheese and pickles methodically. "Well, in the case of those adorable kittens, it was more for stopping you at all. Or stopping the kittens. They _liked_ the kittens." _Lettuce, chutney... and are those anchovies?_ She added several to the sandwich. _Bliss_ She munched appreciatively.

Megamind frowned slightly, before taking another bite of his sandwich and chewed noisily. Huh. Well, that much was to be expected. A lot of people wanted him locked up and thrown away, key tossed into the ocean and unable to no longer see the light of day. He was a villain after all, no, a _super_ villain and if he wasn't being hated by the masses he wasn't doing his job. But to think they got angry at Metro Woman for not detaining him indefinitely? That was just silly. Swallowing, he had to chuckle. "Oh those kittens. They were cute, as they were deadly."

"Yes, that was their catchphrase, wasn't it?" She waved the little pot of anchovies. "I had to tempt them away with fish afterwards." She put the pot down carefully. "You were in custody by then."

He had flinched and drawn away from her as she waved the pot of ugly salty fish in his direction, but relaxed when she put it back down. "Yes, yes I was... sigh." Megamind audibly sighed while saying the word, before shrugging. "Oh well. Went on to escape yet again, and rain terror down upon Metrocity once more."

"Always with the raining terror." She raised her glass again, and washed down salty sandwich with the good red wine. "You never changed your tune."

"I love singing in the rain of evil. You just need to remember to keep your handy umbrella of good above your head so you don't drown in it."

"Ahahaha."

Megamind smiled before taking another sip of his wine. Oh this was the good stuff, Uncle Antonio knew what to suggest all right. He had soon finished his own sandwich and set his plate aside, settling back to look at Metro Woman quietly. It wasn't often he just go to... well. _Look_ at her, one on one like this. She really was beautiful, though he wasn't all too keen on admitting it out loud to her.

She didn't seem to notice. She was making short work of the spread of food, helping herself to some of everything, opening jars and experimenting with the contents. Her wine glass was empty next to her. Spotting this, Megamind reached for the bottle and held it up in a questioning manner. Seeing her nod, he poured her another glass before setting it back down besides him and went back to... well. Looking at her. The way her brown hair fell in thick, wavy waterfalls over her neck and back was lovely. He was glad she'd grown it out since in their youth the hair had been fairly short and cropped into a bowl cut. Her hair suited her much better long and wavy like this.

Course, he had liked her hair back _then_ too. Giving a faintly embarrassed smile he forced himself to look away, and pick up some olives to eat.

She reached for the glass, and startled, frozen, staring into the park in surprise, as if she'd heard something. She looked back with an embarrassed expression, then gazed in horror at her wine glass. "Oops." The stem was intact, but the foot of the glass had broken off entirely. "I... uh. Sorry." She held the glass carefully, and picked up the broken piece.

Megamind blinked in surprise, and looked at the broken wine glass. "Oh." he looked up at her and smiled faintly, "Well. S'no big deal, right?" not like it was a priceless piece of crystal or anything.

"I really didn't mean to." She frowned at the piece, then grinned up at him. "Want to see a magic trick?"

"Uh. Sure? As long as it doesn't involve a pencil vanishing." Megamind replied.

She took a sip from the glass, emptying it to halfway. "Not vanishing." Then she held the broken part of the glass to the stem, and concentrated. Her laser vision turned on with precision, and she melted the two pieces of glass, before pressing them together. "Ta da."

"Oh you show off." Megamind laughed, setting his glass down in order to give her a small round of applause. "Very smart. Very clever. Anything else you can do with that laser vision that I don't already know?"

"That would be telling," she sniffed, and slowly let go of the base as it cooled. It took a little while. She sipped the now slightly warmer wine. "I think there are things you can do you're not telling me, so it's fair for a girl to keep some of her secrets."

"Oh fine, if you have to see things like _that_." he scoffed. Megamind looked at the picnic spread and was surprise to see just how much of it they had eaten so far. "...wow, we can really put it away can't we?"

"That would probably be me." She had the grace to look embarrassed. "Sorry."

He grinned. "I'm just glad you enjoyed it. The whole... uh. Yeah. Everything." huh boy, awkward memory flash back to her holding him at arms length like he was some kind of rabid animal or something. Flushing somewhat he picked up his empty plate and reached for the basket in order to put it away.

"I really have. Yes." She smiled, and assisted in putting things away in the basket. Her wine glass was slightly crooked.

Megamind snorted when he saw how crooked it was, and gave her an amused grin. "Good job on that..." he said as he reached to take it from her. Like before, their fingers touched for the briefest of moments and he did his best not to overreact.

"I try to repair most of what I break myself. I've become a dab hand with plaster and paint."

"Not so much with mechanical robots and creations of science, hm?" he asked, covering some dishes with their covers before putting them into the basket. "It would be against your code of good if you began fixing _my_ things that you break." Megamind smirked before standing up.

"You need to pay for your misdeeds." Instead of standing up, Metro Woman lay down on the emptied blanket, on her back with her hands under her head, gazing at the stars above them. There might not be many stars, but there they were, twinkling away.

Megamind stared down at her, before peering up at the sky also. "...yeah well it's all part and parcel isn't it?" he asked, wanting to lay down beside her but he had stood up. He remained standing.

"Come down here. The view is... very nice." She tilted her head to look at him.

Oh well. He was _invited_ now. Megamind got down onto his knees before scooting forward and lay besides her on the grass, putting his hands on his stomach as he stared up at the sky with her.

"...hm. It is nice." he admitted.

"Told you." She gazed up at the sky. "So you just decided, age 14, to go up there and see what you could see?" She was harping on about this far more than he had expected.

He blinked and tilted his head so he could look at her. "Well. I was planning it for over a year and a half. But yeah. I went into space. Haven't you?"

"I'm not good with the whole lack of atmosphere thing. It gets pretty... heady up there." She blinked. "I rarely go higher than Metro Tower."

Megamind rolled onto his side and supported himself on his elbow. "Oh but you _must_." he said, "Despite how little I think of this planet and the people who run it, seeing it from high up really is beautiful."

She tilted her head to look him in the eye. "I just... rarely seem to have the time. What with the city being so threatened all the time, and my parents estate to manage..." She smiled. "Rarely have a day to myself like this."

"Excuses are for cowards." Megamind said simply, before reaching up and actually poking her in the tummy. "_You_are no coward. What's stopping you, right now, from just flying up there to see everything? I tell you." he rolled backwards onto his back, looking up. "If I could fly I'd do it any time I wanted."

"Oh." She looked up, then looked over at him again. "I think I just thought of another magic trick."

"My curiosity is piqued." he replied, glancing back at her.

"I can safely assume you're not afraid of heights." She stood up, easily levitating as she went, and offered her hand to him. "Come look at the city with me."

Megamind had an idea as to what she was getting to, and the bottom lip biting grin he was giving her answered her question without use of words. He was to his feet in seconds, and placing his hand in hers, still without speaking. This was too special to ruin it with words.

She tried to work out how to pick him up, and after both of them danced around each other for a moment, she picked him up with an arm under his knees and another arm around his back, and the ground just fell away from beneath them both.

He let out a sudden noise of surprise at how easily she flew, despite it being something he had experienced far too much of in the past. But usually by that point he was defeated, and at an all time low, and never put too much thought or notice into caring about how easily she could fly. Here, now, heart racing and eyes watching he watched the world fall away. All the while trying his best to focus soley on that and not on the fact her breasts were right _there_ and the wind was blowing through the shirt she was wearing.

The trees of the park dropped below them almost immediately, and then they slowly rose above even the height of Metro Tower. She slowed down, and they both gazed for a moment at the carpet of lights.

In the distance, storm clouds were beginning to roll in from the East. Even so, above both the clouds and the two aliens now hovering so far up above Metro City, the stars twinkled with greater purpose. This high, the pollution and the lights of the city weren't nearly as thick. Megamind lifted a hand and brushed some of Metro Woman's hair out of his face, since it was whipping around a little in the wind. "What'd I tell you?" he asked quietly.

She was suddenly looking right into deep eyes, wells of green. "Tell me?"

"Beautiful." Megamind replied just as quietly, though he was no longer looking down at the city beneath them.

"Yes, beautiful." She gazed into his eyes, then leaned in, pulling him up to her face, to kiss him.

He shuddered a moan into the kiss. The arms he had been keeping carefully against his chest opened and wrapped around her as best he could at this angle. It wasn't that workable but he wasn't about to pull away from her to readjust his arms, that would be foolish. Eyes shut, wind whipping around him as well as her hair, he just submitted himself to the emotions, and the beauty of the moment.

It would have taken her a very long time to realise that they were still high above Metro City, but she heard something, and simply had to pull away for a moment. "Do you hear that?"

Megamind made an articulate 'hur?' noise, mind fogged and unclear. "What?" he asked, opening his eyes and blinking a few times in order to glance around to see who dare interrupt them.

"I think your dogs are barking." She looked downward, over him. They looked down to see, far below, a row of Brainbots working to rise to their height, barking worriedly.

"...ugh." Megamind grunted, looking down at the little cyborgs as they continued to bark like hyper chihuahuas with metal teeth and glowing brains. "They're just jealous." he paused, before looking back at her. "Uh. Not of the kissing, no more the fact I'm up here with you and they're not here instead. They get jealous pretty fast."

"I'm sure. Can you call them off?" She grinned at the flashing, barking machines. "They look rather worried."

Megamind scoffed then called down. "DADDY'S FINE! STOP WORRYING. MINION'S IN THE CAR, GO TO HIM! GO ON, GO. I MEAN IT. GO TO MINION. CLARICE, THAT MEANS YOU TOO."

The pink glowing Brain Bot whined like a can-opener as the blue Brain Bots began to obey daddy. It took a few more coaxes from Megamind for her to finally lower back down towards the park, still whining as she did.

"So. Where were... we..." She cuddled him closer to her.

"Somewhere here." Megamind replied as he stroked his hand against her jaw gently before kissing her softly. Yes, softly. Not like before. She didn't like any other kind, did she? He didn't want to have a replay of what happened before ever again. And especially not this high above the city.

He was very gently running his hand down the side of her face and she pushed her head into the touch, before kissing him on the forehead. His hand somehow reached the back of her neck, his long fingers tangling in her hair, and he guided her into another kiss on the mouth.

She found herself rubbing his back, fingers finding every bone. His thin body arched against her her touch, and he made another one of those hungry little noises. It was a noise which she very much liked.

God, she was touching him, her touch was electrifying, warm, and made his nerves stand on end like nothing else had done before. The hand in her hair gripped a little more, as his other hand had somehow worked it's way between them. It was pinned.

Then she felt his mouth open against her own, and whether he meant to or not, his tongue pressed up against her lips. She opened her mouth to his, and the warmth inside him seemed to flow through, like an opened circuit. He made another of those tiny sounds, and she pushed her hand under the back of his shirt.

Good touch was so hard to come across when you were the villain of the city. Knowing all too well the hand pressing up against his bare back was the same hand that had thwarted all of his plans, and had laid many a good punches to his jaw in the past, Megamind still found himself succumbing to the whirlwind of feelings that were engulfing his entire being.

Her mouth had always felt so soft during their kisses so far, the tender, shy things that they were. Yet, while still somehow pertaining that soft feeling, the kisses were feeling harder now. Even more so, when her tongue met his own and he felt like his heart stopped beating the instant that initial contact was made. The hand in her hair was now a balled fist. He opened it and sought out the back of her head and pulled her closer to him, or at least tried to.

His mouth tasted of the red wine they had been drinking, and was so very warm. Hot. She took her time, amazed he was letting her inside, then delightedly exploring inside his mouth. He wriggled, and froze, and wriggled again. His back was warm, and his legs occasionally kicked to give him more leverage to control the kiss. She felt dizzy, and tried to come up for air, realising they were slowly spinning.

He gave no indication that he had noticed or that he cared about their spin at this point. The way his tongue slid up against hers was keeping him far too occupied to care about silly things like directions and how they were flying up in the sky anymore. Megamind moaned hungrily into her mouth as the hand that had been pinned between them finally fought its way out and slid up her back, under her shirt.

At this she made a tiny moan, and pulled away from the kiss entirely for a moment, staring into his eyes. There was a moment of abject horror, as Megamind regretted being so forward as to push his hand into the back of her shirt, then she kissed him harder and he threw regrets to the wind. There was a very distinctive ripping sound, and the back of his shirt split upwards, almost to the collar.

The harsh wind now up against his bared back sent goosebumps over the exposed skin. He shivered, but didn't dare stop to complain. It was only a shirt. Only an Italian silk shirt. This moment was far more important than money. This moment was priceless for the two of them and the ripping of some shirt wasn't about to marr the moment _at all._

The hand against her back pressed desperately close, feeling her firm, warm skin beneath his exposed fingers. His other hand, still lost in he hair, was well and truly tangled by now. It felt as though there was little to nothing that could interrupt them up here, high above the city streets and the people who occupied them.

That was, at least, until Metro Woman heard something.

She had, in the back of her head, been hearing something for some time. But it hadn't really registered. They were sort of slowly tumbling through the sky, now, and she pulled out of the kiss and looked around worriedly.

"What?" Megamind pulled at her hair, trying to get closer into the warmth of the kiss again.

"I can hear something." She gazed down over Metro City, frowning.

"Something...?" he asked, chest rising and falling whilst his face remained flushed violet.

"I think... over there." She started charging through the sky towards her target, descending rapidly. "Duty calls."

"But..."

His protests fell on deaf ears since he soon found himself standing on a building next to a tall billboard. He watched as the woman flew quickly out of sight, vanishing behind one of the many tall towers that made up Metro City. Megamind stood there for a few moments, slowly realizing how bitterly cold it was up here. It wasn't helping matters that his shirt was ripped open at the back. Suddenly self conscious the blue man wrapped his arms around himself, and shut his eyes tightly.

_God damn it._

She'd left him. She had actually put somebody else... "It's her job." he reminded himself. "She's the good girl. She's_supposed_ to put the well-being of others above her own. And me." he added angrily before lifting his wrist and pressed a button on his watch. "Brainbots?" Megamind asked, hoping his voice didn't sound nearly as choked up as he thought it did. "Come get Daddy. _Now._"

**To be continued**


	6. Home again Home Again

_What time was it?_

Megamind was somehow aware that it was morning, but what exactly _time_ was lost on him. Rolling onto his side he let out a deflated groan and lifted both hands and rubbed at his eyes, wishing he hadn't woken up. Last night hadn't ended as well as he had thought it would at all, and had grumpily dragged his feet to his bed as soon as Minion got him home last night.

"_Goood_ morning sir!" Minion bustled into the room with a tray, placed the tray on the table and worked his way along the windows, opening the curtains to a far too bright light.

"Yargh!" Megamind hissed like a vampire and rolled over violently, pulling the blankets up and over his head like a little kid. "Too early. Come back later." he muffled.

"It is a beautiful morning, sir. And it is definitely time to greet the day." Minion carried the tray to the bed, and stood over him, waiting for him to sit up and receive his breakfast.

For a while it looked like the blue super villain was going to ignore Minion entirely. But breathing underneath a blanket was never an easy task, so he huffed and pushed his blanket down and slowly sat up. The ripped remains of his silk shirt had ended up in the bed beside him for some reason he didn't want to remember. He yawned loudly. "How is it you wake up so... _happy_ in the mornings, Minion?" he asked as he held his hands out to recieve his breakfast tray.

"I've always been a morning person sir." answered Minion cheerily, placing the tray on his Master's lap. Coffee, sweet pastries, egg and little buttered toast soldiers were arranged on the tray, complete with a smiley face drawn on the egg, and a napkin folded in a pretty shape.

"Sometimes I wonder if you're as evil as I think you are." smirked Megamind as he picked up the knife and stabbed it into the hard-boiled egg, mixing up the yolk as he did. "Still. You make great eggs."

"I do my best sir." Minion wandered around the room, tidying up. "I never really saw the attraction in eggs." He picked up a strange half-built machine from the bedroom floor, and tried to work out what it was meant to do, turning it over in his robotic hands.

Megamind by now had a mouthful of egg and toast, but glanced over at his fish as he fumbled with the device. Swallowing, he reached for his coffee. "Don't drop that. It might send you back in time if you do." he informed the fish before taking a quick sip of his piping hot coffee. "Oh yeah. That's the stuff."

"Ah, I see." Minion carefully placed the machine and its dangling wires on a low table, clearing the table of discarded clothing, and piled the clothing into the washing basket in the corner. "So that is the latest version of your reset button, is it?"

"Got it in one." Megamind nodded, replacing the coffee and picked up one of the small pastries that were definitely_not_ blueberry flavoured. After that berry being used as a means of insults during his short shool days Megamind refused to acknowledge the mere existence of the fruit.

Minion worked his way around the room to the other side of the bed, and pulled the damaged silk shirt from Megamind's pillow. "Oh dear. I thought perhaps it could be saved..."

Megamind paled and he suddenly reached out and grabbed at the dangling end of the shirt in his hands, though he froze suddenly. No, the shirt couldn't be salvaged in any way at all. Metro Woman had ripped from the bottom of the shirt all the way to the collar and even then the collar only remained as one piece by a few strands of fibre. So... why didn't he want Minion to take it away from him?

Minion frowned. "Sir, you don't need this, and perhaps I can use it to line a bag from my sewing basket now."

Slowly the blue hand released his grip on the shirt and his hand fell back onto the bed as if he suddenly had no control over it. His green eyes lit with conflict as his chest rose and fell. "She left me." Megamind said quietly. "She just _left_ me." the night before he had been too... what...? Enraged? Upset? Insulted? Some foolish emotion or another had taken control of him and had remained all but silent, from when Minion had drive up to collect him from the corner of Fifth and Main, where the Brain Bots had carried him.

"She had to go and do her job, Sir." Minion folded the remains of the shirt sadly. "And you said that she kissed you. She didn't drop you, did she?"

Megamind frowned as he picked up his fork and stabbed it into two of the bread soldiers and slowly dipped them into his egg as if he was torturing some poor soul, slowly lowering them into burning lava. He imagined screaming and begging, before the head of the soldier was drowned in egg. "She kissed me. She touched me. She ripped my shirt. Then she dumped me. On a _billboard._ Because people are too stupid and unwilling to take care of themselves for a night." he hissed quietly, before withdrawing the piece of toast and bit into it viciously.

"I have a feeling that she will be back, sir." Minion smiled gently. "We have something of hers."

"Do you mean her heart?" Megamind asked, looking up at his friend with a somewhat hopeful expression.

_Oh boy, he is falling very, very hard._ "I... am sure we have that as well, sir. But I meant her instruments." He carefully paired up a pile of black boots from where they had been flung in the corner, and returned the to a wide wardrobe rack. "They are still in the car, sir."

It took Megamind a moment to remember just what Minion was talking about and when he did that hopeful expression turned to one of concern. "...oh, oh yeah... those..." he looked down at his breakfast. "She'll need those by next Thursday..."

"I think she'll want them back sooner than that, sir." One boot was singular. Minion searched around under the chair and then under the bed, tilting his robot body to see at an awkward angle. His extendable arms pulled from under the bed three shirts, a brightly coloured ball, three heavy physics textbooks, several small nuts and bolts, and no left boot. "Do you know where the left boot is, sir?"

"Oh it's here." Megamind reached under his pillow and pulled the boot out from under it and held it out to the fish as if it was the most logical place for a boot to be.

The look on Minion's face was one which said that he really didn't want to ask. He placed the boot with its partner in the wardrobe, and gazed about the room with satisfaction. A job well done. You could even see the floor.

"...Minion?" Megamind asked, having stared at what was left of his breakfast since handing Minion the boot, looked a little lost. Very unlike himself.

"Sir, she is not the sort of girl to leave you hanging for long. You are a _Catch_." He picked up the tray from Megamind's lap and headed for the door, spinning his fish body around in his robot head to give a final parting comment. "Go have a shower sir, and put your favourite cape on. You'll feel _much_ better."

"Okay Minion." he replied with an odd little smile. He watched Minion leave before leaning forward and pressed his hands to his forehead. Why was he focusing on this so much? It wasn't like she had planned it. Things like this happened to heroes all the time, he read about it, and saw it in movies when Minion would go and rent those action super-hero movies for him to 'research' on. But still... huffing, Megamind shook his head free of his hands and reached for one of the thick physics textbooks that Minion had retrieved from under the bed and placed carefully on his bedside bookcase.

Even if he felt bummed about how the night had ended he had no qualms about what had happened beforehand. The vivid memory flashed into his mind, and all the sensations he had been feeling at that point in time flashed back with it. The warmth, tenderness and... well... _Hotness_ of it all wasn't something he'd be able to forget. Ever. She had felt amazing, the strength he knew she had been reigning back, the muscles he could feel under his hands and _everything_ else! Opening his eyes the villain stared at the thickest of the physics textbooks and reached for it, and opened it up.

Pressed tightly away within the pages of the massive book was a thin magazine. It was fairly old, over ten years at least. He pulled the small book out and quickly replaced the physics textbook where it belonged and began to slowly flip through the photographs printed within.

None of the women in this book were even half the goddess he had seen last night. Each face he knew by now, and could think of which woman he wanted to look over and turn to her page instantly. Yet now they just... didn't feel right anymore. Which was saying something since this had been in his possession for so long, and had always done the trick for him before. Sighing, he closed the magazine and set it on top of the physics book before laying back down on his bed.

_Her smile, when she sat down at the picnic with him._ Megamind was preoccupied for some time, and eventually really needed that shower...

~*~*~

Minion walked into the kitchen and placed the tray on a bench. He gazed at the tray and sighed. It was always so hard to get Sir to eat when he was in these moods, and Minion had found that it was the morning food ambush which was the most effective. Sir was unlikely to eat anything else today unless a miracle happened, but at least with breakfast inside him he wouldn't collapse at some point later in the day.

It wouldn't be the first time that had happened, though. Minion could remember quite clearly some days when Megamind was in terrible, horrible moods and refused any and all offerings of food only to eventually physically collapse. Luckily it had never happened when he was in the middle of battle with Metro Woman, but it came alarmingly close sometimes.

Minion started putting dishes in the dishwasher, and scrubbing egg off everything. Dishwashers never removed egg...

As he was doing so, his portable telephone went off. Not the walkie talkie that Sir had installed in the suit, but the small hidden phone that Minion kept secret from everyone. _Ahh... what will she have to say now?_ Pulling his hands away from the dishwasher he opened up the little hidden compartment and flipped the phone open. "Good morning, Minion speaking?" he greeted, even though he knew who it was already.

"Minion?" The thing about voices was that they were able to tell so much. It appeared that Metro Woman wasn't having a very good day.

"Hello Miss." Minion smiled faintly as he leaned against the sink. "Your morning not going so great either, huh?" he asked.

"It's been one of those nights. I haven't had a rest yet. I just wanted to know that you all got home safely?" She sounded tired. Very tired. "I came back to where I'd left Megamind, and there was no one there... and I was worried but I couldn't trace you..."

"Hey, hey it's okay..." Minion said gently as he bent down and closed the spiked dishwasher, choosing to not turn it on since if he did no doubt Sir's shower would be interrupted with ice cold water when he didn't need it. "Sir had the Brain Bots pick him up, then _me_ pick _them_ up. Duty called, huh?"

"Yes. It never rains but it pours. There was a kid involved. Nasty. Then after that there was a fire out in the West of the city..."

"Yeah I heard about that on the radio. Heard you did good." Minion tried his best at cheering her up though it was obvious she was just as upset as his boss was over how their night out had ended.

"I managed to end up with a television interview whilst covered head to foot in soot. I looked like I had just played a part in Mary Poppins." She laughed. "Then I dealt with a robbery, which did NOT end up on the radio, I'm sure. Then back to the fire because of some problem with a fire ladder... And yes, okay, I can see the funny side to that."

Minion couldn't help but laugh. "Very funny side." he grinned before sighing. "What are we going to do with you, flying off to save everyone. Such a brave woman." he sighed as he turned his body around a little, finally hearing the hiss of running water coming from the bathroom. "You know you forgot your stuff in our car, right?"

"I didn't forget it. I couldn't find the car. Or him. Or you." she sighed "and I didn't know what to do!"

"Hey, hey it's all right. He was just upset. When he gets like that he needs to get home." Minion explained calmly, "Look, he knows you left them in the car. We just got to find a way to hand them back to you without... you know. Giving away that you've been calling me or giving way our location. Ooh, how about one of us drops it off at the manor under disguise?"

"Oh. Could that happen?" She sounded very relieved. "I really do need them back."

"Oh most certainly." replied the fish. "I might give him the idea later today, uh. Will you be at the manor or should he just drop it off?"

"I'll try to be there... but after a week of nothing much happening... well. I'm off to the docks to help with something to do with a fish right now. Not you, I'm hoping?"

Minion raised his eyebrows. Or, what you could _call_ his eyebrows. "Well I hope not!" he laughed, "Well I'm just saying. I think it'd be great if you two could talk a little. You know, work out a third date maybe...?" he asked, vocals lifting to a hopeful sing-song kind of way.

She was silent a moment, and Minion's fishy heart missed a beat. "I... I'd really like that."

He resisted the urge to spin on the spot and jump up and down. "You would? Oh, that's great news!" he grinned. "So, so maybe you could let me know when you're needed at the docks so I can have Sir bring your things around before?"

"I'm at the docks... now. Right now. Lunch time would do?"

"Oh." Minion blinked, and looked at the clock. Right, Sir had slept in something awful... "Sure, of course! So, around twelve thirty? One?"

"One. This looks like it's going to be a rather large fish, and another photo opportunity. Lucky me. See you later, Minion."

"Try not to be too rough on the fish." he smiled, "See you later too, Miss." Minion said before hanging up and sticking the phone back into its proper place before huffing and putting his hands to his hips. Now all he had to do was convince Sir that it was a good idea to drop her things off.

Hearing the shower finally end he smoothed out the fur on his shoulders and straightened up. Time for some good old-fashioned 'this is your idea Sir, and it is a good one' conversation.

~*~

And so, at the predetermined time, Megamind found himself driving up a long driveway towards Scott Manor, disguised in his black leather goth gear. While he certainly had good feelings towards the young woman who lived here, the mere image of the manor brought on mixed, ugly feelings for him. He could still remember seeing it growing fast towards him, a life of luxury, only to have it ripped from him. But that was the past, he had a very positive-looking future now and he didn't want to spoil it.

Reaching the gates he leaned out of the car, and pressed a button on the intercom.

"Ola?" came the voice of a man over the speaker.

"Uh. Ollo." Megamind replied awkwardly, "Uh. John Doe here to see Wendeline Scott?"

There was a pause.

"Si, come on in." replied the voice and the large iron gates slowly eased open so Megamind could drive in. Sighing, Megamind drove up the long, curvy driveway that led to the manor. He drove past trees that were hundreds of years old, and scoffed when he saw actual peacocks strutting around.

"Sheesh." he sighed but soon pulled up to a stop outside the front door of the large building, and slowly got out of the car.

He was just shutting the door on the car when the one of the front double doors opened. Megamind held his breath. It became a gulp as he saw that it wasn't Metro Woman at all, but a pale skinned woman wearing an egg-shell white dress with an apron tied to her front. In her hands was a bunch of yellow roses, and an envelope. Swallowing painfully Megamind forced himself to walk forward as two other workers followed the maid. They were tough looking men, probably here to collect her suitcases.

"Um. Mister, Mister Doe?" the maid asked.

"Yes. Yes, that's me. Of course it's me." Megamind said stiffly. This wasn't what he was expecting at all.

"Miss Scott told me to allow you in and to apologize but something came up. These are for you." she held out the flowers and the envelopes.

Acidic green eyes narrowed harshly at the girl and she flinched. So she should. If only she knew who she was dealing with! Grunting he reached forward and snatched up the flowers and the envelope and stepped away as he watched another pair of men arrive to pick up the second suitcase. He did nothing to help, nor did he open the envelope.

It wasn't until he was off of the Scott property, and pulled onto the side of the road, when he opened the envelope.

Dear Megamind

There is a deepening pile of half written letters on the floor here. I'm fast running out of time as well as running out of wastepaper baskets. Although I can do most things, two things I somehow cannot do are withstand the full concentrated power of the sun, or write a letter without a ream of paper...

I spent a good deal of time last night checking every stop sign and fire hydrant in town, in between answering calls to Justice. I could not find your car, or you, anywhere. I'm sorry about leaving you hanging, almost literally, like that. It was hardly my intention, but you must understand that as the 'shining beacon of hope' for this city I have to help those in need _when_ they need it.

Despite how we parted ways I completely enjoyed our evening off together, and the performance which you treated me to. The picnic was exactly what I needed. The song was a cunning device which I would love to explore further.

Thank you for helping me to open my eyes. In the everyday of my defence of Metro City, I had forgotten to stop and admire the beauty of that which I defended, and never expected to find that beauty through interaction with someone who always seeks to destroy the city. Funny that this, of all things, is something that we have in common.

Next Thursday, please allow me to treat you to a dinner as you have now treated me twice.

3 Wendeline Scott 

The letter was reread, over and over again, within the confines of the Invisible Car and Megamind soon had the whole thing memorized. Her hand writing was very neat, as he would have thought it would be, making his own messy scribbles pale in comparison to her penmanship. He leaned back in the drivers seat, staring down at the words before a slow smile crept onto his face.

"Next Thursday." he said before looking to the yellow flowers that he had set in the passenger seat. Reaching over he picked up the bunch and observed them for a moment, even going so far as to give them a quick sniff, before setting them back down. "Next Thursday." he said again as he started up the car and drove away from Scott Manor, mind racing as to just what awaited him next Thursday.

~*~*~

Thursday was never going to come.

On a weekday morning like any other, he ended up on observatory hill with the Brain Bots, exercising them with a game of fetch. His pets/Hench-cyborgs were just like any other pet that was built to mirror the actions of domesticated canines, and like any other pet dog, they demanded walkies and fetch. This was hard to ignore when you had over fifty of them, and their jaws were made of metal. Those jaws held was something you didn't want to experience on any part of your body.

So when the Brain Bots wanted walkies, they got walkies.

"Okay, okay..." Megamind sighed as a wrench was dropped unceremoniously in front of him by one of the many, many Brain Bots. "This is the last one, and I mean it. You can give me those baby puppy eyes of yours all you want but this is it, it's getting late. Daddy needs his evil handsome sleep."

Grabbing the wrench he took a few steps back, and pulled his arm back. The Brain Bots bowged in delight and flew around in circles, some of them clanking as they bumped into one another, before flying away in anticipation to catch the thrown wrench. As they, unlike dogs, had the power of flight, Megamind would often hurl the wrench (or screw driver, saw, whatever piece of hardware the Brain Bots were fixated on that day) over the sheer drop of the cliff on the edge of the observatory gardens which surrounded the old abandoned building. This is what he did today, throwing it as hard as he could.

The sea of glowing blue and red cyborgs flew in a similar way to schools of fish in the ocean. They moved as one, with one purpose in life: catching the wrench. They argued, squabbled, bit down, growled, and _bowg_ed at one another fighting for the wrench as it fell towards the ocean. At the last second one of the quicker, less-spiked Brain Bots managed to catch it. Gloating in it's victory it flew in circles around it's companions before soaring back up to where Daddy was, to show him how quick it had been in getting the wrench.

Only when they returned, Daddy was gone.

For a moment all of them hovered there like balloons. It took one of them giving a high pitched whine, which sounded more like an electric can opener, to finally shake them out of their shock. They scattered wildly, all of their search engines set to one person, 'Daddy'. The importance of finding him was greater then that of the wrench which now lay abandoned on the grass. Working as one the Brain Bots sought out any and all evidence they could find that would help them decipher what had happened to Daddy. There was no Invisible Car, Daddy had walked here with them from the Lair, the way here abandoned enough for them to make it here without being spotted by anyone.

But maybe they had been wrong? Brain Bot #45 bowged loudly, reporting a find of something interesting. Muddy grass with a very obvious tire tread passing over it. Measuring the width of it, and using their keen observation skills (when it came to some things, at least) an alarm was going off inside all of the gathered Brain Bots circuitry. This was the tire tread of a police car.

Now they knew why Daddy was gone.

~*~*~

Blue hands slammed again and again against the port-hole window in the door of the new cell. Megamind had barely registered the fact that the insides of the cell was painted with green fields, bright blue skies, a rainbow, and various fluffy cute animals trying to drill in the idea that 'Happy Thoughts make Happy People' or some claptrap like that. Ever since that tazer had met the back of his neck the alien had been freaking out that he had been captured at such a moment of vulnerability. Never had they the gall to capture him like this before, it was insulting! It was infuriating! It was...

...horrifying.

He had seen enough while being dragged through into the cell by the two policemen. There was some kind of console attached to the room. What was it's purpose exactly? He didn't know. How long had they had it anyway? Just _how_ did it work, if at all? His heart was pounding in his chest as he suddenly turned and pressed his back against the door and stared at the bright colorful mural that surrounded him.

"Oh this is not good." he said to himself.

His cell had never been like... _this_ before. He was used to steel, plastic, inches thick, no windows, dim bulbs hanging above him and a small single bed for him to sleep on. This, this was unnerving. Pushing himself off of the door he moved to the single chair in the room and touched it before pulling back, half expecting it to _do_something. But no, it was an ordinary every-day chair.

"Am I supposed to sleep sitting up?" Megamind asked aloud before glancing up at the television that hung above the horrible, ugly, cute mural. Well, at least he had TV? No doubt with limited channels though, none of the fun, interesting things.

What was he doing. Thinking about TV. He was home again, and he didn't want to be home again, not today! Spinning around Megamind rushed back at the door and pressed his face against the glass in an attempt to peer at the men in blue who were overlooking the console. The Warden was amongst them. Why this excited him, Megamind did not know.

"Warden!" he shouted, hoping the room wasn't sound proof. Judging by how the grey-haired man turned his head to glare at him, it wasn't. "What is this," Megamind demanded, dramatically gesturing to the cell whilst still remaining pressed to the glass. "some kind of joke?"

"No joke, Megamind." the Warden replied as he stepped out from behind the console with his hands hanging behind his back. "Comfortable?"

"I'd give it a minus infinity on the rating scale if there was one." Megamind replied flatly.

"I'll take that as a yes." The Warden gazed through the glass.

"So." Megamind started, "What is this? What is _that_?" he asked as he jabbed his finger against the glass to point at the machine one young looking rookie was sitting in front of.

"Some minor precautionary matters."

"Minor." said Megamind, giving the Warden his best 'are you kidding' expression.

"We can't have you getting out again. There are some serious concerns about the security of this prison." The Warden tilted his head forward, looking Megamind sternly in the eye. "You should be glad we care about you."

"You're just upset because I kept breaking out of your little prison all the time." Megamind scoffed, "Am I right?"

"Yes. You're giving us a bad name."

"Hah!" the alien laughed, amused. Foolish fools, the lot of them.

The Warden sighed and looked at the ceiling. "We know that you have been planning something large. The dedication of the Metro Woman Museum is approaching."

By now Megamind had crossed his arms over his chest, one of his eyes narrowed permanently at the grey-haired man through the porthole window. "Really now. As if I would bother myself with something so tedious as this city stroking that... that _woman_'s ego. As if she needs any more of it." of course, he would rather be stroking something else entirely, but that wasn't anybody's business. Least of all the business of the man in the grey suit.

The machine the young cop had just sat in front of suddenly made a low beeping noise, and one of the illuminated screens indicated it with a blip on a radar screen; just to make sure nobody missed it.

The Warden glanced sidelong at the screen, never turning his head, then glared at Megamind, narrowing his eyes. "You _are_ planning something."

Megamind stared at the machine from his disadvantage point of the port hole, before turning his attention back on the Warden. "What, is it following my brain activity? How are you doing that without having any of those sticky round things stuck to my head?" he asked, pressing his hands back to the glass to peer at the machine again. "Reading the air? Or are there sensors in the floor?"

"It should keep you amused at least for a little while trying to work it out. We're actually using your technology, Megamind. Remember the remote control helicopters you set loose on the city a few years ago?"

"...yes...?" Megamind asked slowly.

The Warden didn't even say anything. His smile slowly widened.

"How _dare_ you." hissed the blue alien, eyes narrowing dangerously. "You fools have no right sticking your underdeveloped brains into my inventions! You will _pay_ for this, Warden. You will pay dearly!" The machine started to beep in a thoughtful manner, and two technicians started up an animated discussion about one of the readouts.

The Warden raised an eyebrow. "You are the one who should be paying for your crimes, Megamind."

"Well, then things would be bring. Wouldn't want that now, would we?" replied Megamind, arching an eyebrow. The machine suddenly made a very different beeping noise, a long, drawn out one before petering into silence. "...do I want to know what that one means?"

"You shall find out what that one means in about..." The Warden checked his watch "... thirty seconds."

Megamind stared at the machine accusingly, as if it was a gossipy person who was telling the Warden and all of the police about things they had no right in knowing. If he had ever kept a journal, and had a sibling who would dare steal it and read it aloud, this feeling would be similar to what he would have felt in said predicament.

A wall a quarter way around the room beeped, and a small slot opened. The smell wafting from the exposed shelf was incredibly good. Megamind turned his head to stare at the small slot, before turning back to look at the Warden with a blank expression on his face.

"I shouldn't keep you from your dinner, Megamind." The Warden turned on his heel and stared for a moment at a monitor outside the view of the door window.

"I'm not hungry." Megamind called out, watching the man walk away. This was a bit of a lie but he really had no appetite today, not after what just happened and the fact that his own technology had been turned against him like this. He felt violated, something he certainly didn't appreciate feeling at any point of the day. So he turned his back on the wall and glared at the tray of food before walking to the swivelling chair and sat in it.

Over the next few hours, the monitors showed repeated patterns of thought from Megamind, intersperced with him spinning on his chair and glaring at the ceiling. The food slowly cooled, and he pointedly ignored it, his brain apparently going nineteen to the dozen.

The Warden stalked past every hour or so, but didn't approach the window in the door until several hours after lights out. The lights in the strange round room were still on, and Megamind was spinning angrily in his chair, muttering to himself.

The Warden blinked through the glass, thoughtfully, then tapped gently on the window.

Slowly the chair stopped spinning and Megamind came to a stop facing the Warden. His finger tips were pressing against one another while his elbows were supported by the chair's arm rests. "Oh my. A visitor. Hello." he said sourly, though he was being surprisingly calm despite the situation he was in.

"Are you okay in there?" The tone of the Wardens voice was actually concerned. How touching.

"If you must know, my foot's asleep." Megamind replied quietly, lifting his left foot and wiggled it. He set it back down and leaned forward, his expression one of exhaustion and frustration. "Besides that, I'm peachy."

"Are you certain you don't want to eat anything?"

Megamind turned in his seat enough to look over his shoulder at the cold food. "Certain." he replied, somewhat stubbornly, before turning back to look at the man.

The Warden nodded. "Fine. Then we shall put the lights out. I'm told you discovered how to turn your seat into a bed an hour ago." The slot in the wall closed and completely disappeared as he talked. "I trust you will find it comfortable." The lights slowly dimmed. "Goodnight -"

The shape of the Warden's mouth was all Megamind needed. A split second later his hands were to his ears, his eyes were shut, and he suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs. "LA LA _LA_!" then stopped just as quickly as he had begun, hands back in his lap, and chose to stare at the Warden with a complete and utter look of distrust. The Warden knew all too well how he felt about _that_.

The lights dimmed to the point where the Warden could no longer see those wide green eyes, and he thumbed the window closed. He turned and watched the guards change at the desks in this outer room, and mused to himself over the rejection the strange blue man had always made of his original name. _He is determined to be called Megamind now... even hacked into the computers and changed his name in the official documents_

Back in the darkness of the cell, Megamind had gotten off of the white chair and pressed the button needed to change the chair into a bed. It only flattened out, and the seat section actually hid where the blanket was located. Pulling it out he shook it once before climbing onto the 'bed' and laid down, eyes open and full of worry. It was Wednesday night. Tomorrow was Thursday. He _had_ to be at the Padstow Arms on time, but he had never planned a prison break in such a short amount of time before, and with a machine capable of picking up the activity of his brain...

_This will be tricky. But not impossible._

~*~*~

Metro Woman paced in nervous circles on her ceiling. It was a few hours before her performance at the Padstow Arms, and for once that wasn't what she was panicking about. She gazed down at the dining room set out below her. A fireplace, a fancy dining table, an expensive chef in the kitchen, servants running backwards and forwards making the changes she had fussed with at the last minute...

She usually didn't even have staff in her wing of the mansion, and she didn't doubt this was part of what was causing her stress. She was always so self-reliant before, taking care of herself and doing all the kind of chores that other rich people like her would hire staff to do. Metro Woman chewed at her bottom lip as she watched one young man fuss with the positions of the knives, forks and spoons on the two place settings. There were only two places set at the table.

Would Megamind even know the difference between the many kinds of forks? Would it even matter?

_Stick with the plan_. She would show up at the Padstow Arms just like any other Thursday and he would be there waiting for her to perform. The usual group of fans would be there too, and she would play all the songs requested as she always did. He would have no idea as to what she had in store for him, a meal unlike any he would have experienced before, since she highly doubted the Metro City Prison would have chefs like the ones her family could afford.

Then afterwards... well. That wasn't planned, and she couldn't predict the future.

It wasn't until she was certain that everything was as it should be, and she was happy with it, when she was ready to head off to her gig. She had fussed over what to wear the day before, and turned her wardrobe inside out, so that today she didn't need to. She pulled on the tall white zip boots she had bought the day she had first asked him out, two weeks ago... _no wait, three weeks? Really?_. They fitted over cream moleskine jodphurs, and gold and red tartan shirt. Grabbing her suitcases tightly in her hands she carried them outside, and flew off towards the Padstow Arms.

As she flew over the city, visions of carrying Megamind high over the buildings ran through her head. She almost forgot where she was going. To be continued 


	7. Who is Mr Darcy?

Megamind grumbled to himself as he pulled up the zip on his one piece that ran the length of his spine, head arching slightly as he did so. Upon his feet were his usual boots, and his high collar and cape remained slung over the spare motorbike that he always stashed away in a secret location in case of emergency prison out breaks. Today was a day in which he needed to use them. Far behind him the sirens and wails of the prison security system were long forgotten, and he wondered if the Warden would actually report on his escape despite them not reporting his capture.

That had been a strange thing indeed. Like any prisoner Megamind was given a newspaper to read and he had been surprised, that morning, to find his picture not printed on the front page. Were they trying to be sneaky in an attempts to hide the fact just how easy it was for him to break out of prison? This would be an even greater insult because they had that 'high tech' hardware to monitor him and yet he had still broken out, just like any other time.

Besides, the Warden had it coming. Gloating the way he had, as if Megamind had finally been tamed like some weak-willed puppy. Still... he did feel a _little_ sorry about showing him who's the boss by using his watch to make his escape. Maybe he should get him a new one, as both a gift and a tease?

"No time to think about that." he said to himself as he pulled his black spiked leather gloves into place before he grabbed his cape and pulled it into place. Megamind had somewhere important to be and if the remains of the Warden's watch were any indication he was very, very late. Hopping onto his bike he started her up, revved the engine once, and tore off through the streets.

The roar of the souped-up engine rippled through the streets as he rode. He ignored the speed limits as any true villain would, leaving only a burned tire tread and the smell of leather and fuel in his wake. Speed cameras clicked, far too late to get a picture of the speedster, the engine continuing to roar like a lion pumped full of steroids. It happened to be the first thing Carlos heard of the approaching doom, as he sat reading a newspaper in the security booth at the gates of Scott Manor.

He sat up in his chair as he heard the motorbike grow rapidly closer, only to be suddenly replaced by the high pitched squeal of tires grinding against the asphalt. Waving his hand only once to clear the air of the fumes Carlos opened his eyes and found himself staring into the green eyes of the city's number-one super villain.

Megamind stared at the dark haired man blankly before finally blinking and pointed to the gate. "You. Door attendant drone, open up."

"I... Who should I say is calling?" Carlos desperately kicked a pedal under the table.

"You're kidding, right?" Megamind asked, raising his eyebrows. "Who should I say is calling? _That's_ what you're asking me? _Me?_ Do you have any idea who I am? Oh I don't know, maybe I'm the guy who's been wreaking havoc upon this pathetic city ever since I was old enough to shave? No, even _before_ that?" he asked, sitting up straighter on the bike and pushing his shoulders back, lifting his head indignantly. "As if I'm somebody who needs an introduction to begin with! Now open the door, _now!_"

"Carlos? You okay down there?" A fuzzy female voice said from a small communication unit, out of reach in the corner. "What's going on?"

Carlos gave a pleading look to the green eyed blue man, not even trying to make a reach for the microphone.

Megamind still stared at Carlos, the same piercing look that he had patented after years of practice. He then smiled slowly, unable to not enjoy himself at moments like these. "Well, aren't you going to answer her Carlos?" he asked, one of his hands slowly moving to reach at something hidden by his cape.

Carlos picked up the microphone and flicked a switch. "Linda? We have a visitor-" Megamind ripped the microphone from his hand and purred into it.

"Please tell Miss Scott that I've arrived fashionably late."

The machine crackled as Carlos, in a cracked voice said "Miss... Scott... She is not here."

Megamind seemed to literally freeze, if but for a second. He gripped the microphone in his hand so tightly Carlos could hear the squeak of the leather against it. Pressing his lips together tightly Megamind slowly swallowed before speaking again. "Not here?" he asked, doing his best to not let his voice shake.

"She is gone. I am sorry... She is gone..." Carlos backed away, sensing that it was not a good idea to deliver bad news to the villain or to be in such close proximity when doing so.

"NOT HERE?" Megamind screamed, throwing down the microphone in a show of rage not that many people were that privy to. "NOT HERE!" he echoed again as he pulled his spare De-Gun from it's holster. He was livid, that much anyone could tell. Being locked up was nothing out of the ordinary for the super villain, but being able to launch a break out so quickly and efficiently whilst being monitored by technology based on your own was no easy task. To think she wasn't here, waiting for him, like he thought she would was like a kick in the teeth.

"No, sir. I am sorry sir." Carlos was cornered in the back of the gatehouse.

"No you're not. You will be. You _will_ be." Megamind growled dangerously.

From the safety of the manor, if you happened to be glancing out the window at this certain point and looking towards the gate, you would have seen a sudden flash of blue brighten up the small area before vanishing as quickly as it arrived. Next the gates followed suit, burning bright blue for a split second before vanishing in an instant. There was the roar of the engine again and the bike tore its way up the long drive way and screeched to a halt on the gravel driveway as Megamind leaped off of it.

"Of all the rude..." he growled to himself as he used the gun again, this time on the door, and it slowly became a blue cube and he stepped over it easily. "As if breaking out of that stupid hell hole is a walk in the park-well it is but today was especially hard to do!" Megamind ranted to himself as his leather boots squeaked across the polished marble floors and he ignored his reflection that he could see quite clearly beneath his feet.

The manor was strangely still, lights on, a table askew in the middle of the hallway, doors swinging open, a ceramic vase smashed on the ground, with scattered flowers in a pool of water.

He stared at the smashed vase, and the remains of the flowers, his anger melting faster than a snowflake in July. Slowly, almost apprehensively, he approached it and looked down at the vase. It was Ming Dynasty from the looks of it, very expensive and here it lay shattered on the floor. His eyes slowly followed the trail of destruction, as he found more objects demolished until it led him to a large room.

A hole had been punched in the wall next to the door, which hung open on one hinge. The room had been a widely sweeping dining room with fancy chandelier, huge fireplace with a marble mantle, comfortable yet antique lounges in front of the fire, heavy yet handsome dining table and fancy table settings.

Megamind had only seen such extravagance in magazines, or in movies. He glanced around the room, awed at first by how... well. Fancy it all was. But on second inspection he saw what he had somehow missed. A white table cloth had been torn to shreds, and on the floor were remains of plates, glasses, and from the looks of things a bottle of wine. Swallowing shakily the blue man moved towards the shattered remains of a meal he would never have, and bent down to his knees and picked up the largest piece that had survived an obviously angry woman.

It was half a plate, everything else was too shattered to recognize, much less pick up.

"You did wait." he mumbled to himself before looking around the room again. Megamind swallowed a lump forming in his throat quickly and pressed the plate to his chest as if it was a security blanket and looked around the room once more.

The wide windows were smashed, and hanging open, torn curtains flapping out through them. Further inspection proved the remains of a chair had been thrown out onto the tiled patio outside the building. Something made him look up, and he saw rough round hole in the ceiling, leading to the rooms above. Perhaps this was where she had gone next?

He knew he had precious little time, so he quickly placed the half ruined plate back onto the table before rushing from the room. Finding some curved elegant stairs he raced up them, taking in just how damn white everything was. It was almost blinding him by how clean and white everything was. Finding the door that lead to the room that was directly above the dining room below, Megamind pushed the doors open.

A huge room full of musical instruments. _Well, that was unexpected._ Racks held guitars, a wide white piano in the window, another piano lurking darkly in one corner, a stage with electrical... things... and the two suitcases which Wendeline usually took to the Arms, standing in the middle of the room. One of them was open at an odd angle, and he looked inside to see her banjo and a pile of music books packed inside with padding. The ukelele she usually kept in there was nowhere to be seen.

The wall was a series of windows, all small glass panels held together with clean white painted wood, and Megamind walked up to the doors, placed his hands against the glass and then pressed his face against it as well. "Where are you?"

His quiet moment was destroyed by the familiar wail of sirens. Megamind gave the room one last look, before running from the room and eventually the manor. He had to get to his bike and get out of here as quickly as possible since he did _not_ plan on spending more time in jail this week than he already had.

~*~*~

Metro Woman woke up with a crick in her neck and her left arm dead, curled up on her favourite old lounge. The television was showing a bright blue screen with "no signal" bouncing around in black. She groaned, and as she stood, pins and needles filled her arm. Muttering, she dragged herself to the bathroom.

Memory of the day before slowly filtered through to her consciousness. "Oh no." She leaned delicately against the bathroom mirror. It felt nice and cool on her forehead. "Ough."

Her gig at the bar hadn't gone as well as it normally had. She had been angry, upset, so she had made a fair few more mistakes then she normally ever would. At first she had thought he was just arriving late to be fashionably late, to make a game of it which they could snipe at each other back and forth over later. But her gig had ended, and he still hadn't showed up. Just how many men had she approached in the bar, trying to find out if one of them was him in disguise, was plain embarrassing.

He had stood her up.

Why? Because she had left him on that roof top? Or that she hadn't been there when he had arrived to drop off her music gear? Was he that pathetic and childish?

It seemed he was.

She had eventually stormed through the mansion in a rage, grabbed her ukelele and some spare clothing, and told the staff that she was OUT. She had then flown to her beach house, pulled out instant pizza, Pride and Prejudice, and a serious amount of alcohol. Which had made her feel no better, but was probably slightly less destructive to the house and grounds.

After brushing her teeth and giving her face a quick wash with a hand full of water she walked back through into the decorated room and picked up her remote control and flicked it from the DVD player to the regular channel.

"-scene of devastation this morning at Scott Manor." the news reporter behind the desk was saying, obviously read from a teleprompter off screen. "We go now to Roxanne Ritchi on the scene. Roxanne?" he asked, turning his head slightly.

Metro Woman stared, wide eyed, as the image moved to the gates of the manor. One of the tall gates was missing entirely. There stood Roxanne holding her ever faithful microphone. She was wearing yet another fancy-looking dress, the sort one would normally expect to see on a red carpet somewhere, rather then reporting the news.

"Thanks Steven." she nodded before beginning a slow walk over the ruined gates. "Chaos, last night, is what welcomed the workers here at Scott Manor, when Megamind launched a surprise attack. As you can see, most of the gates have been removed entirely." Roxanne gestured to what was left of the gatehouse. "According to the security cameras Megamind broke in through the front doors ahead. We currently know that one staff member has vanished, and the police are searching for him, or any witnesses to this crime."

Metro Woman had dropped onto the lounge, watching in astonishment as the News showed her house and grounds, still shots of the inside of the house with holes in the wall and ceiling, another still showing the destruction of the dining room windows, then back to a picture of the police standing next to the gates. She dropped the remote on the arm of the seat and rubbed her face with the heels of both hands, stared at the ceiling, and then looked back at the Television.

On the screen Roxanne was now talking to a worker Metro Woman knew, Linda. She was another one of the security personnel, anyone can tell by the security uniform she was wearing.

"So the Scotts weren't home last night?" Roxanne asked.

"No, lucky thing too." Linda answered nervously, not the type of woman who liked being in the spotlight at all. She glanced at the camera before back to Roxanne. "Lord and Lady Scott are on business in Sweden right now and Miss Scott wasn't in either. Something to do with a night with Mr. Darcy, whoever that is. Either way we all count ourselves lucky she wasn't here, less he kidnap her or something..."

"Being kidnapped by him is a bit of a pain and I can see how it would cut into Miss Scott's time, I'm sure." Roxanne said with a faint smile. "So do you think that was his plan, to kidnap her?"

"I don't see why else he would come out here." shrugged Linda.

Metro Woman growled angrily "To gloat." she answered. "He would have come to gloat." She punched a pillow next to her, and glared at the screen through a haze of feathers.

At the other end of the city, Megamind was snarling at his own television, a wall of monitors in the heart of the evil lair, waving a large wrench at the news whilst holding the legs of a large machine together. Behind him a row of hopeful Brain Bots watched his every move, moving every time he waved the wrench angrily at the monitors.

"Mr Darcy? Who on earth is MR DARCY?" He finally threw the wrench at the monitors. Before it reached the screens, it was caught by several overexcited Brain Bots. The slower bit the legs of the faster brain bot, and they swirled in an angry bowging swarm, fighting over who would return it to Daddy.

Megamind pulled a nut out of his pocket, and threaded it into place, then reached up and was not surprised when the winning Brain Bot placed it in his hand. He tightened the nut, checked the next bolt in place, then threw the wrench into the air in a different direction.

So that was where she had gone? Had she just been playing with him all along, as a means to get to him emotionally rather than physically? Make him believe she had even an inkling of... of... whatever it is that women feel towards blue handsome men, only to rip his heart out? Who was this Mr Darcy? How long had she been fooling around with him? Long enough that the foolish drone who worked for her family didn't see it as strange for her to go out on a date with him.

The anger was already petering out like a dying motor and he leaned against his latest machine of chaos and shut his eyes tightly.

It had worked. Damn it all to Hell, it had worked. He felt horrible. He had never felt this way before, this aching, painful feeling in his chest and this strange, odd desire of wanting to cry was alien to him as he was to the people on this pathetic planet.

"Well done, Metro Woman." he said to himself, voice shaking. "You win this round."

"Sir?" Minion walked in carrying a tray of something which smelt like food. At first it smelt amazingly good, and then nauseating. Why did Minion never seem to understand that food was not what he needed?

Megamind had just been wiping at one of his eyes with the palm of his hand, and turned to look at the fish, sniffing quickly as he did. "What?" he asked.

"I thought perhaps you could eat something, sir. These only just came out of the oven, they're piping hot..."

The blue alien turned his head away, shutting his eyes. "I'm not hungry." he said as he grabbed another nut and began working it into place, focusing on the task at hand and pointedly ignoring any other feeling his body was giving him.

Minion frowned. His master had arrived in the middle of the night, sopping wet, on the spare motorcycle, spinning out between ranting and bursting into tears. He had refused any food, and any offers of a nice place to sleep, and refused to talk about the entire situation. Minion had tried to explain that he had been working desperately to get Sir out of the prison, but this, it turned out, had not been what had caused the fury. Instead it was missing the date with Metro Woman. Minion had been horrified to find out that it appeared that Metro Woman had had no idea that Megamind was imprisoned again, and had expected Megamind to be at their pre-arranged date.

And now, according to the news, it appeared there was yet more confusion. Mr Darcy? Surely … Minion had several theories as to what this actually meant. He had been calling Metro Woman desperately from the kitchen whenever he could, but she wasn't answering her phone.

And he hadn't slept either. Instead he had found one of his blue prints hanging from his idea wall and had spent all night tinkering away at it, obviously trying desperately to keep his mind preoccupied on something that wasn't associated with the woman _too_ much. This device had a lot of spikes and harsh, sharp edges. A design built from nothing but anger, hardly the well thought out devices Megamind normally made.

The strain was beginning to show, though. Minion could read his Master like a book, and those dark rings around his eyes along with the hollow look he had to his face told him things were getting worse. He had even made mistakes with the machine that Minion could see, and that had just been from glancing at the plans without really understanding the purpose or meaning behind it. Megamind only made flaws like this when he was emotionally and physically exhausted.

His stomach then defied his stubborn attitude by suddenly groaning loud enough to echo throughout the evil lair. Megamind paused in his working to stare down at it, before lifting a hand and rubbed his face and growled.

"Sir, you really should eat something." Minion walked closer, showing a tray of flaky crusted meat and cheese pies and carefully selected sugary treats.

Megamind looked at the food as if it was radioactive toxic waste, or worse, broccoli. His eyes squinted accusingly at the food before he glowered the same expression at Minion. That tired expression on his face changed to that of utter misery as he suddenly let out a loud sob. He reached out and grabbed his friends furry shoulder and leaned forward slightly, eyes shutting tightly before his legs finally buckled under his slight weight. "Down I go..." Megamind mumbled as he did just that.

Minion caught his Master in a practiced manner with one hand while he set the tray down with the other. He picked Megamind up gently, and walked over to a nearby couch. His Master was soon wrapped in several warm grey wool blankets, and Minion gazed down at him sadly. "Oh Sir. What am I going to do with you?" he muttered to himself, returning to the tray of delicacies. "And Wendy, where on EARTH are you?" He carried the tray away. Perhaps he could blindside his master into eating when he woke up.

~*~*~

Meanwhile, in Scott Manor, the Police had left the servants to deal with the cleanup. Roxanne Ritchi was cutting short interviews on the lawn outside the front door. A chorus of yells from the workers inside caught her attention and she turned her head and was surprised at what she saw.

Wedged against the double doors of the manor was... the iron gate from the front. It was on its side, well and truly stuck. Not only that but it looked as though they had found the missing worker, Carlos. The man was swearing in Spanish, waving his arms and looked not only wet but infuriated. The other workers were trying to calm him but the man was obviously shaken. He stormed away from the manor, grabbing his hat and throwing it to the ground as he stormed away.

"Man what a mess," sighed one of the workers. "How are we going to get this gate out of here?"

Roxanne and her cameraman walked with fascination up to examine the thoroughly jammed gate. It made for some great footage.

~*~*~

Twelve hours later, Megamind, still wrapped in grey blankets and on the couch, stared vacantly ahead blinking slowly. He had woken up around ten minutes ago, but it was obvious that he still wasn't anywhere near his usual bright eyed alert state. Collapsing from lack of eating and physical exhaustion took it out of a regular person, but Megamind had the body mass that really caused it to knock him for six.

Minion was kneeling next to him, with a determined expression on his fishy face. He held another spoonful up to his masters lips. "Another one, Sir."

Megamind looked at his fish with a tired expression before he obediently opened his mouth, breathing through his nose as he did. "Ah." he said as he did, tongue sticking out of his mouth.

He swallowed mechanically when Minion fed him spoonful after spoonful of warm broth. Minion was reasonably certain that Megamind wasn't really even aware that he was there. A small bowlful of broth, and he gently pushed Megamind to make him lie down again. "That was very foolish, Sir." All he got was an unintelligable grumble from the alien as he was pushed down onto the couch again, shutting his eyes tiredly.

Megamind curled around the warmth in his middle. The scolding was coming through to him as a muffled tone, smothered by cotton wool and blankets, but he knew it was there. He could safely ignore it. He felt so hollow...

...and it just wasn't going away. He was aware of a day passing, and moving himself from the couch to his bed. Minion had been there, ghosting along behind him and asking him questions like 'are you all right?' and 'are you sure you're not hungry?' It fell on mostly deaf ears. Megamind had never felt this way before, he hated it, and he wanted it to be gone but he just couldn't shake it.

So here he was, laying on his bed and staring at the wall while the world continued to carry on its merry way without him. He had the vague idea that several days had passed. Sometimes Minion would force him to eat. Sometimes he would let Minion feed him, sometimes he would throw the food across the room. Usually it was just too much trouble. The wall was blank, just like his head, and he felt so calm. He slowed down to one thought every now and again. Slow thoughts like clouds. He could cope with clouds. Clouds were nice and friendly, except for when they were grey and brought rain and lightning. Then clouds could get bent.

Lightning. He liked lightning. The memory of catching lightning in an early experiment flashed through his head. Lightning was powerful. But... not powerful enough. No... He needed something more powerful... something... like... What was more powerful?

The sun.

The words of the letter ran through his head. Megamind blinked, slowly and carefully, holding onto this thought. Holding onto it before it got away. He slowly rose from the bed, like Frankenstein's monster, and dragged his feet across the floor to his set of drawers. Pulling one open he pushed his extra pyjamas aside and pulled out a pink envelope. Staring at it blankly for a minute he felt as though his legs would buckle again but he forced himself to stand firm, and pulled it open.

His eyes trailed the letters words, despite having dedicated it to memory. Her writing was neat, loopy, and fancy. But in that opening paragraph her choice of words stood out as if they were as tall and plainly written as the Hollywood sign.

He frowned, and glared at the letter until his eyes watered, then closed his fist, scrunching the paper into a ball. He stalked towards the door with determination. "MINION?"

Minion ran up with a "Yes, Sir?"

"I need paper. I have a … _plan_."

Minions face lit up. "Oh. Of course Sir. Right away, Sir."

_To be continued_


End file.
